Gang Member Sentenced In 2002 Shooting Death Of 10-Year-Old Girl

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A gang member convicted in the killing of a 10-year-old girl at a christening learned his fate during a sentencing hearing on Friday.

Donna Garrido remembers the day in 2002, that her friend, Melaney Mendez, 10, was shot dead.

"She collapsed in my mother's lap," she said, "She was a little girl. We were going to Disney World the next day."

Garrido and Mendez were with their families attending a christening at St. Paul's church in Parkchester when prosecutors say members of the St. James Boys gang barged in. A gang fight started and guns blazed.

Melaney was shot dead, and Javier Tochamani was paralyzed.

On Friday, the convicted killer Edgar Morales came to court to hear his sentence.

The prosecutor said Morales never showed remorse, CBS2's Dick Brennan reported.

"He walked out in the courtroom with the same look on his face that he has had for the last 12-years," Bronx Assistant District Attorney, Christine Scaccia said.

Morales had been convicted in this case once before, but the DA had included terrorism charges, and the DA threw it out.

This time he faced a judge who sentenced him for manslaughter and attempted murder.

"On the defendant's conviction for manslaughter in the first degree, determinant term for 25 years," Judge Peter Benitez, Bronx State Supreme Court, said.

The judge added 25 more years for attempted murder.

The victim's family said they are satisfied with the sentence, but their lives will never be the same.

The defense attorney argued that Morales was not the shooter at the christening, but the judge said the jury determined that he was.