5-to-life sentence given for man's 2002 murder

Deon Lomax Clopten, who recently was found guilty of murder and other charges in connection with the 2002 slaying of Tony Fuailemaa, has been sentenced to five years to life for the first-degree felony murder charge. Third District Judge Dennis Fuchs ordered that sentence to run consecutively with a prison term Clopten already is serving for previous convictions for crimes unrelated to this killing.

Additionally, Fuchs sentenced Clopten to zero to five years in prison for third-degree felony failure to stop at a police officer's signal. That prison term will run concurrently with the murder sentence.

However, Fuchs imposed a one-to-15-year prison term for second-degree felony possession of a weapon by a restricted person and made the sentence for this conviction consecutive to Clopten's current prison term and also consecutive to the new prison sentence for murder.

A jury found Clopten not guilty of a fourth charge of obstruction of justice.