In Conroe, a Montgomery County jury sentenced convicted...

In Conroe, a Montgomery County jury sentenced convicted murderer Jason Burkett to life in prison for killing three people in a 2001 plot to steal their cars. The jury in state District Judge Suzanne Stovall's court took about 6 hours to return the sentence just after 10 p.m.. The jury found him guilty last week of capital murder. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous agreement on whether Burkett's upbringing -- a grim saga of physical abuse, petty crime and rank poverty -- should be considered as a mitigating factor in the case. Life in prison is the default punishment dictated by law in capital murder cases where juries cannot agree unanimously on the death penalty. Burkett, 21, will be eligible for parole after 40 years in prison. Burkett was 18 when he and then-roommate Michael James "Romeo" Perry, then also 18, plotted to kill Susan Stotler, 50; her son Adam Stotler, 16, and Jeremy Richardson, 18, the son's friend living at the Stotler home west of Conroe. The killers' goal was to steal Sandra Stotler's Chevy Camaro convertible and her son's Isuzu Rodeo. Perry, convicted of capital murder earlier this year and sentenced to death on February 28, previously provided a confession in which he described using a shotgun on Oct. 24, 2001, to kill Sandra Stotler in her home.