Man sentenced to life in store workers' slayings

DETROIT (AP) - A 35-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole in the shooting deaths of two 20-year-old suburban Detroit discount store workers. WWJ-AM reports that Lavere Bryant said last Thursday he would appeal and told relatives of Joseph Orlando and Brenna Machus that their killer "is still out there." The Dearborn man was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the July 2013 slayings. It carries a mandatory life-no parole sentence under Michigan law. Surveillance video showed a suspect entering the Family Dollar store in Dearborn where the victims worked and leave later with Machus. A co-worker found Orlando's body in the store the next day, and Machus was found dead two days later in some woods in Dearborn. A state police forensic scientist testified during the trial that DNA on a shopping cart, towels and in Bryant's car linked him to the victims. Bryant was sentenced as a three-time habitual offender. Orlando's stepmother Shannon Miller told Bryant in court last Thursday that she hopes he feels "the fear and torture" the victims experienced as long as he rots "in prison for eternity." Published: Mon, Dec 15, 2014