Pennsylvania man sentenced to 30 years in slaying of 14-year-old at New Jersey gas station

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the shooting death of a teenager at a New Jersey gas station almost three years ago.

Prosecutors in Burlington County say Tamir Phillips, 24, of Bensalem, will not be eligible for parole. He was sentenced Friday.

Phillips was convicted in November of first-degree murder and weapons counts in the August 2021 shooting death of 14-year-old Jesse Everett of Willingboro. Jurors in Mount Holly deliberated for about eight hours over two days before convicting the defendant.

Prosecutors said Phillips was passing the gas station when he saw Everett in a car that had been reported stolen a day earlier. The owner of that car frequently allowed Phillips to use the vehicle, prosecutors said.

The driver passing the station pulled in and stopped behind the stolen car. Phillips got out and confronted Everett before firing a single shot that hit Everett in the head, prosecutors said. Everett died several hours later at Cooper University Medical Center in Camden. Two other people in the car with the victim weren’t hurt.