Teen gets nearly 29-year prison term for cellphone killing

SEATTLE — A 19-year-old who pleaded guilty to shooting and killing a man for his cellphone in Seattle has been sentenced to nearly 29 years in prison.

KOMO-TV reported that Byron White was sentenced Monday in King County Superior Court. He was ordered to serve 28 1/2 years in prison for first-degree murder, the maximum possible sentence under state guidelines.

White was 17 in February 2014 when police say he fatally shot David Peterson, 54, after trying to take the man’s cellphone.

According to court documents, White said Peterson had seen his face so “he had to shoot him.”

White was a football player at Ballard High School at the time of the shooting. He was arrested at Sea-Tac Airport as he tried to board a plane to Atlanta.

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