The father of Australian baseball player Chris Lane has welcomed a US court's decision to jail his son's killer for life without parole.
But Peter Lane's reaction has been smothered by Chancey Luna's appeal against his murder conviction, and he's dreading two more years of turmoil.
Luna was 16 and a member of the infamous Crips street gang when he fatally shot 22-year-old Chris as he jogged along a street in Duncan, Oklahoma in 2013.
He showed no emotion when an Oklahoma court sentenced him on Tuesday (US time) to life behind bars for the senseless killing, with no possibility of parole.
"It'd be nice to have it done and dusted. But they'll appeal.
It'll take two years to get heard, it goes on and on," Mr Lane, his voice heavy with resignation, told AAP on Wednesday.
He said he was satisfied with the sentence, and he'd expected Luna to be handed a life jail term.
As Luna faced court on Tuesday, he wore an orange prison jumpsuit that had the words "Crips for Life" written in black pen on the back.
Slain Australian baseballer Chris Lane's parents have heard how strangers tried to revive their son. (AAP)
"Sixteen is a very, very young age, but we are also talking about an innocent man not much older," Judge Ken Graham told Luna.
At Luna's April trial, a jury only took an hour to find the now 18-year-old guilty of first degree murder.
Timeline of the Chris Lane murder case:
2013
August 13: Chris Lane, 22, from Melbourne, was jogging along a street in the rural southern Oklahoma city of Duncan when he was shot in the back with a .22 calibre handgun.
August 20: James Edwards, 15, and Chancey Luna, 16, are charged with first-degree murder, to be tried as adults. Michael Jones, 17, was charged as an accessory.
2015
March 23: Luna's lawyers call for a larger pool of jurors as just 2.1 per cent of people in Stephens County are
African-American, something they say is unfair.
April 14: The jury selection process begins.
April 15: Trial begins and Luna's lawyer says his client did fire the fatal shot in the drive-by shooting, but it was not premeditated.
April 17: A jury took just one hour to find Luna guilty of murdering Chris Lane.
June 16: Oklahoma District Court judge Ken Graham sentenced Luna to life in prison without parole. Luna's lawyers have filed an appeal but it will take about two years before it will be heard.
Share
