Man imprisoned for life for LV slaying in 2006

A man convicted of killing a Summerlin Hospital Medical Center ambulance driver was sentenced Wednesday to life without the chance of parole.

The jury found Sterling Beatty, 37, guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Paul Brown.

Beatty has denied being involved and will appeal, said Lizzie Hatcher, Beatty's court-appointed lawyer.

In court Tuesday, Beatty told jururs he was innocent. When asked whether he was ready to accept punishment, he replied: "I don't have no choice. The court has already proven me guilty. So here I am."

Arnett Ghoston, Beatty's uncle, said Beatty, a father of four, couldn't have been the triggerman in the killing.

"It was a bad verdict because we know he wasn't the one who did it," he said.

Beatty was convicted of killing Brown during a robbery on Oct. 7, 2006, at an apartment complex near Jones and Lake Mead boulevards. Brown and Corey Simms, also a Summerlin Hospital employee, had gone to the complex to buy marijuana, authorities said.

Barbara Brown, Brown's mother, told the jury Tuesday that Brown's death had seriously affected the family. On the anniversary of Brown's killing, his father had a heart attack. Brown's younger brother has become withdrawn since the killing, she said.

"There is not a day that passes that I don't think about him," she said.

Although prosecutors asked for the death penalty, Chief Deputy District Attorney Roy Nelson said justice was served by keeping Beatty behind bars for the rest of his life.