Sentencing for defendants in convenience store murder

Historic City News reporting that today sentencing was held in the murder of 29-year-old convenience store clerk Malav Desai during a robbery that took place on May 19, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. at 70 Masters Drive in St Augustine.

Desai moved to St Augustine from North Carolina and was working at Tobacco and Beverage Express where he was killed. He was engaged and looking forward to his upcoming wedding and starting a family.

After listening to three days of testimony about the crime, it took only four hours of deliberation for a St Johns County jury to return a guilty verdict in the first-degree murder trial of Sergio Morgan-Wideman on March 24, 2017.

Morgan-Wideman was only 15-years-old at the time of the incident.

After a three-day sentencing hearing that ended today, the defendant was adjudicated guilty and sentenced as follows by the Honorable Judge Howard M. Maltz:

• First degree murder with a firearm:
  Life sentence with a 25-year review of his sentence.
• Robbery with a firearm:
  Life sentence with a 20-year review of his sentence.
• Aggravated assault (two-counts):
  5-years prison concurrent.

Andre Jerome Robinson, Jr. entered a plea to all charges in May of 2017. After a one day sentencing hearing that ended today, co-defendant Robinson was adjudicated guilty and sentenced as follows by the Honorable Judge Howard M. Maltz:

• Manslaughter with a firearm:
  22-years prison with no review of his sentence.
• Robbery with a weapon:
  22-years prison with no review of his sentence.

Robinson is facing additional charges in Putnam and Clay counties stemming from this incident.

Assistant State Attorneys Jennifer Dunton and Mark Johnson of the Homicide Unit prosecuted the cases.