Gas station clerk killer gets life term

Junayed Mahmud on Thursday got the call he’s been waiting for since his older brother, Shihab, was shot to death while working the cash register at a Wellington gas station nearly five years ago.

A Palm Beach County jury convicted Lajayvian Daniels as the masked gunman and he was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“It really feels good to know that justice has been served,” said Mahmud, who lives in Arizona. “No other family should go

through this kind of tragedy.”

After nine plus hours of deliberations over two days, the jury of seven men and five women found Daniels, 25, guilty of first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm. Circuit Judge Joseph Marx imposed two life terms that will run at the same time.

Before the trial, Daniels told the judge that he had no interest in a plea deal for a 25-year prison sentence. Upon hearing the verdict, several of Daniels’ close relatives ran from the courtroom while others stayed and cried until Daniels was handcuffed and led away by deputies.

Assistant Public Defenders Joseph Walsh and Christopher Fox-Lent declined to comment other than to say that Daniels will pursue an appeal.

Prosecutors Jill Richstone and Lauren Godden told reporters they were “very pleased” for the 22-year-old victim’s family, as well as a community that was shocked by the viciousness of the killing.

Mahmud was working night shifts at the Chevron station while also studying computer science at Palm Beach State College. He moved to the United States from Bangladesh about a year before he was killed, seeking the American Dream, his brother said.

The case hinged on DNA evidence because the gunman wore a mask that made it impossible to determine his identity on a surveillance video from the

store at South Shore and Forest Hill boulevards.

Daniels denied being the assailant, but the prosecutors said his DNA was found on burnt clothing worn by the perpetrator during the murder.

The charred clothes were recovered by investigators less than a mile away from the crime scene, near where Daniels lived with a girlfriend and their baby. Cellphone records also show Daniels was in the area at the time of the homicide, the prosecutors said.

Daniels’ lawyers blasted the DNA evidence as weak, arguing that their client’s DNA was nowhere to be found on a black hat worn by the killer. They said detectives ignored the fact that the DNA on the hat belonged to a friend of Daniels.

“It was an incomplete and inadequate investigation by the police,” defense attorney Walsh argued.

Prosecutors said there was no reason for Daniels to fire at the unarmed clerk, who had complied with his demands for money.

“This is the robbery and assassination of Mr. Mahmud,” Godden told the jury Thursday. “Daniels is the person who did this.”

To avoid possible prejudice by the jurors, the panel wasn’t told about Daniels’ criminal history. The former Pahokee resident previously served two state prison terms on charges of fleeing from law enforcement, grand theft and burglary, state records show.