Life in prison for teen killer of aspiring chef

D’Marcus Tucker was 15 years old when he broke into the Oakland Park home of Nicole Franco and stabbed her to death, but Broward Circuit Judge Tim Bailey decided Thursday that Tucker should be sentenced as a man.

Tucker was sentenced to life in prison, a punishment reserved under the law for the most extreme cases of underage killers.

Tucker, now 18, was convicted in August of first-degree murder in Franco’s death.

Had he been an adult at the time of the murder, a life sentence would have been mandatory. But because he was 15, Bailey was obliged to consider Tucker’s immaturity at the time and his capacity for rehabilitation.

Tucker faced a minimum sentence of 40 years.

Defense lawyer Phyllis Cook urged the judge to factor allegations that Tucker was abused by his father and testimony that he suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Witnesses also testified that Tucker’s maturity had improved in the three years since Franco’s death.

Family members of the victim did not speak Thursday -- they had already testified before Bailey at an earlier hearing and declined to comment after court recessed.

But prosecutor Maria Schneider relayed their will to the judge — they wanted Tucker sentenced to life.

Before passing sentence, Bailey said he considered all the factors required by law.

“He did not manifest cognitive deficits meriting psychological attention,” Bailey said, quoting psychologists who had evaluated Tucker.

“He has a hostile, angry, bullying violent personality… He has a normal ability to control his impulses and behavior.”

Franco, 19, was asleep in her bed when she was awakened by Tucker, who had slipped into her apartment at the Bridgewater Place complex in Oakland Park, prosecutor Maria Schneider said in closing arguments Wednesday.

Tucker, 15 at the time, stabbed the woman in the chest multiple times, Schneider said.

Desperate and afraid, Franco reached for her cellphone and called 911, telling a dispatcher there was an intruder in her home and that she was hurt.

Schneider suggested Franco did not know she had been stabbed.

Tucker initially got away and went home — he lived in the same neighborhood as Franco but did not know her.

Detectives identified him as a suspect months later through the DNA that was found on Franco’s comforter.