Philadelphia man given 7 life terms in Delaware murders

March 10 (UPI) -- A 41-year Philadelphia man has been sentenced to 7 life terms and an additional 297 years in prison for killing two people in Delaware, and is accused of killing 4 others, including his mother, in Pennsylvania.

Keith Gibson killed 28-year-old Leslie Ruiz-Basilion at a T-Mobile store in Wilmington in 2021 and 42-year-old Ronald Wright during a robbery on the same street a month later, the Delaware Department of Justice said in a news release .

He was also convicted of several robbery and weapons charges as well as attempted murder for shooting a convenience store clerk in Wilmington and robbing a city Rite Aid around the same time as the murders of Ruiz and Wright.

Gibson's rampage began not long after being released from a Delaware prison near the end of 2020, the New York Daily News reported . After serving almost 13 years for manslaughter and firearms charges during the commission of a felony, Gibson was released with 18 months probation.

Judge Ferris Wharton told Gibson that he "deserves to die in prison."

"I will do everything in my power to see that happens," the judge said.

The multiple life sentences are legally mandated by the first-degree murder convictions, which the jury arrived at in November.

"This is some [expletive]!" Gibson exclaimed as he was led from the courtroom, attempting to argue with the judge that multiple life sentences for each conviction was an unfair and unlawful punishment.

Prosecutors spent about two weeks presenting pieces of evidence, what they called "puzzle pieces," to the jury linking Gibson to the crimes, as well as the murder of a woman working at a Dunkin' Donuts in North Philadelphia around the same time.

He was not on trial for the Philadelphia killing, but the evidence in that case was used to link him to the Delaware crimes.

He will likely be charged with four additional homicides that occurred in Philadelphia around the same time as the crimes he committed in Delaware.

In addition to the life sentences, Gibson was sentenced to 297 years in prison for the weapons and robbery charges in Delaware.

"I have given you as much as I can," Wharton told Gibson. "It is not enough."