Florida teenager handed two life sentences for killing British men

James Kouzaris, 24, and James Cooper, 25, were gunned down by Shawn Tyson after they drunkenly walked into a rundown public housing estate in Sarasota in the early hours of April 16 last year.

The killer will spend his life in prison without parole after being convicted of two counts of first degree murder. Tyson, who has just turned 17, avoided the death penalty because of his age.

The families of the two friends expressed anger at the fact he was released from juvenile detention a day before he killed them.

Tyson had been arrested on April 7 for shooting at a car, but because of an administrative error was released on April 15 to the care of his mother.

Less than 24 hours later he had shot Mr Cooper, a tennis coach from Hampton Lucy, near Warwick, and Mr Kouzaris, a town planner from Northampton.

In a statement, the families said: “It is a fact that we were given a life sentence when our sons were so brutally and needlessly taken from us.

“Ours is a life sentence, with no chance of parole from a broken heart, and a shattered soul.

“The agonising and searing pain we have experienced will continue until our sentence is at an end.

“The evil of the killer is one thing, but the fact is, he would not have been on the streets had instructions to keep him incarcerated been passed from one judge to another.”

The court heard emotional statements from two friends, Joe Hallett and Paul Davies, and saw tribute videos made in memory of the two victims.

Prosecutor Karen Fraivillig read a statement from Mr Cooper’s parents Stan and Sandy which said: “Anyone who has lost a child will know there are no words which can express the despair, disbelief and desolation.

“We will miss him every minute of every day in a home that now feels empty.”

They described him as “the finest son any parent could dream of having”.

“We have lost the core, the heart, the light and the love of our lives,” they said.