Anthony Boone had a nice jacket. It cost him his life.
On Friday, almost three years after Boone was shot through the eye and left for dead, a D.C. Superior Court Judge sentenced the man convicted of killing him to 35 years in prison.
Robert McMillan, 33, was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder last October. During the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura R. Bach alleged that McMillan was cruising the neighborhood near his far Southeast home on Feb. 27, 2004, when he saw Boone waiting for a bus at the corner of 13th Street and Savannah Avenue Southeast.
McMillan screeched to a halt and raced up to him. Grabbing Boone by the collar of his North Face jacket, McMillan said, “You know what this is. Give that up.”
But Boone resisted. McMillan drew out a pistol and shot Boone through the eye, Bach alleged. He took the jacket and left. Boone died on the sidewalk.
McMillan was a suspect early on but he wasn’t arrested until 2006 when a witness came forward to identify him as the shooter.
Judge Erik Christian‘s sentence pleased prosecutors. In a news statement, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor called Boone’s slaying “senseless” and “cold blooded.”
In a sentencing memorandum, Bach highlighted McMillan’s 15 arrests and six convictions for felonies ranging from assault to theft.
“McMillan has shown an arrogance and a complete disregard for both the law and the sanctity of human life,” Bach wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “In short, there is little hope of rehabilitation.”
