BOSTON, Sept. 29, 2016— The Roxbury man convicted in the unprovoked killing of 15-year-old Soheil Turner as the teen waited for a bus to school will continue to serve life in prison after the state’s highest court affirmed his convictions, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld the convictions of XENIYEJU CHUKWUEZI (D.O.B. 4/4/91) for first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm for the 2009 murder of the unarmed teen.

In a decision written by Justice Barbara Lenk, the court rejected each of Chukwuezi’s claims of judicial errors made by the Superior Court judge who presided at his trial.

Among those claims, the defendant argued that the trial judge erred by not allowing him to show jurors a computer-generated simulation depicting the killer and victim standing at the bus stop.  After viewing the simulation and hearing testimony from the graphic designer who created it and other expert witnesses, the trial judge deemed the simulation “hopelessly misleading” in its attempt to show the height of the killer while failing to account for the shooter’s hunched posture and other relevant factors.  The SJC agreed.

“It is evident that the ‘height analysis by comparison’ that the simulation facilitated was inexact at best,” the justices wrote.

The justices also rejected Chukwuezi’s claim that, as an 18-year-old at the time of the murder, his mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole was unconstitutional. Though juvenile murderers sentenced to life in prison are entitled to the possibility of parole, Chukwuezi at age 18 was a legal adult at the time of the fatal shooting.

“The age of eighteen, however, ‘is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood,’ the justices wrote, quoting an earlier decision.

The justices also found that no statements made in the prosecutor’s closing argument unfairly prejudiced the defendant.

Jurors in Chukwuezi’s 2010 trial deliberated for less than a day before finding Chukwuezi guilty of shooting Turner in the back of the head and shoulder as the teen waited for a bus to school shortly after 7:00 a.m. on May 7, 2009.  Prosecutors presented video evidence and witness testimony proving that Chukwuezi engaged Turner conversation as the teen stood at the intersection of Adams and Dudley streets.  The evidence showed that, without warning or provocation, Chukwuezi produced a handgun from his pocket and fired twice at Turner, mortally wounding the unarmed teen.

Assistant District Attorney John Pappas, Conley’s chief trial counsel, prosecuted the case at trial.  Assistant District Attorney Zachary Hillman of the DA’s Appellate Unit argued the case on appeal.  Catherine Rodriguez was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.  Chukwuezi was represented by Stephen Maidman.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.