Two men sentenced to prison for 2013 murder

6-22-2015 New York:

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Two Albany men will spend at least 25 years in prison for a brutal 2013 murder.

Authorities said it was a revenge killing. The killers thought they were taking down a rapist but instead killed an innocent man.

Sylvester “Soup” Scott was shot and killed on Grand Street in December 2013 just days before Christmas. Russel Palmer and his nephew Kareem Murray were found guilty of the crime.

In court on Monday, Scott’s family members said Scott was a good guy and a dedicated father whose mission in life was to help out kids as a mentor and basketball coach. So it came as a huge shock to those who knew him that he was shot dead.

Albany police said Palmer and Murray believed Scott had raped Murray’s girlfriend, and they planned to hunt him down. But prosecutors said Palmer and his nephew got it wrong when they pegged Scott as the rapist.

Police had determined Scott was not her attacker. DNA evidence eliminated him, according to the Albany County District Attorney’s office.

On Monday, Palmer and Murray were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

“It’s satisfying, but it comes with a tremendous cost having to listen to the state of the victims’ daughters who had to endure Father’s Day without their father,” Albany County ADA Eric Galarneau said.

“They watched him, they stalked him, and they killed the wrong person,” Scott’s girlfriend Camelle Osbourne said. “Basically, there’s nothing more I can say.”

Osbourne said she’s grateful to the judge for delivering the maximum sentence, but she said she only wishes her boyfriend’s killers could have faced a penalty equal to the crime they committed.

“You take a life, you get your life taken,” she said. “That’s what I felt should have happened.”

Palmer and Murray will begin their sentences immediately. No one was ever charged in the sexual assault. ..Source.. by Anya Tucker