YOUNGSTOWN — A jury in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court found Samuel L. Byrd Jr., 69, guilty of aggravated murder, and he was immediately sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Byrd shot Keimone L. Black, 29, to death in a car parked at the South Avenue Shell station gas pumps about 3 a.m. June 15, 2022. The gunman fired shots into the car on the left through the passenger window and then fled.

In a rare court maneuver, visiting Judge Thomas Pokorny went right to sentencing after the jury returned the verdict about 10 a.m. Friday. Pokorny was standing in during the weeklong trial for Common Pleas Judge R. Scott Krichbaum.

Pokorny ruled Byrd as indigent as said the court will appoint an attorney to take care of his appeal.

“You’re an individual that has to be separated from the rest of society because you’re dangerous,” the judge told Byrd.

Byrd also was given a three-year consecutive term because a firearm was used in commission of the crime. After sentencing, Byrd was led away in handcuffs by sheriff’s deputies.

The jury received the case on Thursday afternoon after Youngstown Police Lt. Robert Gentile spent much of the day on the witness stand. At the time of the shooting, Gentile was a detective on the Youngstown police force. He said he recognized Byrd’s image that was captured on Shell gas station surveillance video. The video showed the shooting at the pumps.

Black’s mother said she couldn’t understand why her son was killed. She said she believed the murder was a contract killing in which the shooter picked the wrong man.

The judge also noted Byrd served some prison time for a 1981 slaying in Washington, D.C.

While on the witness stand, Gentile had testified he spent quite a bit of time studying the surveillance video after spending about an hour and a half at the gas station. After repeated plays of the video he said he eventually recognized Byrd as the shooter. Gentile also said he noticed “specific shoes” on the gunman that Byrd also was wearing on another image taken from a store surveillance camera.

Police later arrested Byrd as he left the Boardman Inn on Market Street in Boardman.