A man, Derrick Francis, convicted for the murder of Ricky Trooper’s daughter, Brianna Destiny McKoy, was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

The convicted killer was found guilty following a four-day trial in April of this year. The panel of three judges unanimously found the New York man, 41, guilty of the gruesome 2023 murder, two years since the incident.

Veteran dancehall selector Ricky Trooper says his daughter can now rest easy now that her killer, who she had an 18-month-old son with at the time of her death, will be spending the rest of his life in prison.

Derrick Francis was arrested in April 2023 and charged with murder for the killing of 23-year-old Brianna Destiny McKoy after her lifeless body was discovered at her home in Connecticut. Francis was taken into custody in Ohio after he fled the area. Police say he ran from a vehicle he was driven following a traffic stop. Cops say they also found a firearm in the vehicle, for which he faces additional charges.

According to reports, more than a dozen family and friends of McKoy showed up to the sentencing hearing on Thursday (June 5). One of the presiding judges, Judge Earl Richards, spoke in court on behalf of the panel while lambasting the convicted killer before handing down the lengthy sentence. “This is a case that defies description,” Richards told the court. “It tests one’s belief in a benevolent God.”

The judge revealed that Francis and McKoy got into a heated argument on the day of the killing after he had returned to a condo they were living in with their 18-month-old son. Francis allegedly used a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol to shoot McKoy four times in a bedroom while their son was in a playpen. He then fled Connecticut to New York before fleeing to Ohio, where he was arrested. The weapon he was arrested with while on the run in Ohio was the same gun used to shoot McKoy.

Francis declined to speak in court during his sentencing hearing. His defense attorney, Gerald Klein, had asked the judge for a lighter sentence of between 25 and 60 years, arguing that the defendant was suffering from “mental health issues.”