The Nashville skyline (image credit Rusty Russell/Getty)
Nashville, TN (written by Andy Humbles/The Tennessean) -- A jury convicted a Sudan native Monday in the 2010 shooting death and robbery of his Sudanese roommate.
Gai Kuot was accused of killing Malith Wiek, 33, one of the refugees known as the Lost Boys of the Sudan who escaped that country during the civil war there.
The conviction on charges of cfirst-degree premeditated murder, felony murder and aggravated robbery, will carry an automatic life sentence of at least 51 years, said the Davidson County District Attorney General's Office. Kuot will be sentenced July 27 on the robbery charge.
Testimony revealed Kuot had been writing checks from Wiek's account. The murder happened after Kuot asked Wiek for a ride. Wiek's body was found shortly after that on April 21, 2010, on a Nashville street. Kuot was arrested June 14, 2010.
Wiek had been working as a custodian for about six years at an area school when he died.