NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans man who pleaded guilty to robbing and beating a federal drug agent to death has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Forty-seven-year-old Ameal Parker pleaded guilty in July to a second-degree murder charge in the death of Thomas J. Byrne, a 16-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Parker was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt under the terms of a plea agreement.
Byrne was a Houston-based agent who was visiting New Orleans for a conference last year when he was robbed and beaten several blocks from the city's French Quarter. The 40-year-old father of four died at a New Orleans hospital two days after the attack.
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