Mass. man sentenced in Ky. woman's crossfire death

[April 09, 2009]  BOSTON (AP) -- A man convicted in the death of a Kentucky woman caught in a shootout outside a Boston house party has been sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 30 years.

Manuel Andrade was sentenced Wednesday by a Suffolk Superior Court judge for starting the gunfight that killed 22-year-old Chiara Levin (kee-AH'-rah LEV'-in) in March 2007.

Prosecutors say the 35-year-old man started the shootout, though another man's bullet struck Levin. His lawyer had called the prosecution's murder case weak.

The other man was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to up to 30 years.

Levin was from Danville, Ky. She met Andrade at a club while visiting relatives and went to the party with him. She was a University of Michigan graduate living in New York City.

[Associated Press]

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