Atlanta (CNN) -- One of four Georgia teens charged with stomping and beating another teenager to death in 2010 has been sentenced to life in prison, and another faces trial in June, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Emmanuel Boykins pleaded guilty to murder in the death of 18-year-old Bobby Tillman, who was killed when a fight at a suburban Atlanta party spilled out into the street. Medical examiners said that the 5-foot-6, 125-pound Tillman probably died when a broken rib bone pierced his heart and that he would have survived the beating had he not been stomped in the chest.
Boykins avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty and will be eligible for parole in 30 years, Douglas County District Attorney David McDade said. McDade said Tillman's family agreed to the plea deal because he showed remorse for their son's death.
Investigators said Tillman was attacked after some girls got into a fight at the party and hit a boy, who vowed that the next boy who came by would get "beat down." Tillman was next.
Tracen Franklin, the second of the four teens charged with killing Tillman, is scheduled to go to trial on June 11, and McDade said prosecutors will seek the death penalty. No trial date has been set for Quantez Mallory and Horace Coleman, the two other teens charged in the case.
