CLAYTON — A man who admitted killing a St. Louis County teacher in the parking lot of a shopping mall was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Derrick Luster was sentenced Wednesday, two days after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. He was originally charged with first-degree murder. The plea deal was reached as his trial was to begin.
Luster apologized in court to the family of 57-year-old Joyce Belrose, who was killed in August 2000 in the parking lot of West County Center.
Belrose was a fourth-grade teacher from Webster Groves.
Police say evidence from the scene, and from under the victim's fingernails, matched a DNA sample provided by Luster. He was arrested in February 2007 in Texas.