SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - More than three years after a shooting spree that killed a sex-shop clerk and seriously wounded two men, Robert Joel Wheeler was sentenced to two life terms in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.
Wheeler, 28, was sentenced Wednesday morning for the shootings on Jan. 1, 2005.
Wheeler reportedly was browsing in Santa Clarita Gifts in Canyon Country when he picked up an item and shot clerk Christopher Simons in the face with a rifle. Wheeler returned 15 minutes later and killed Simons with a second shot. He then shot a man twice in the back behind a supermarket and attempted to break into a house.
Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, and Wheeler did not plead guilty to special circumstances that would have made him eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole.
