A former death-row inmate charged with killing a man and young boy at a Wilmington barbershop in 2001 has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Friday's sentencing of 42-year-old Chauncey Starling came after he pleaded no-contest last month to second-degree murder.
The plea offer followed a judge's January ruling that a defense forensic expert could testify about the adequacy of the homicide investigation.
Starling, who has already spent 16 years behind bars, had faced a May retrial for the killings of 5-year-old Damon Gist Jr. and 28-year-old Darnell Evans.
Starling was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to death, but he was granted a new trial in 2015 because of his defense attorney's mistakes and prosecutors' failure to disclose information about their key witness at his first trial.
