A Richmond Circuit Court judge today sentenced Dante Lamont Lewis to 30 years in prison for shooting a Blue Bunny ice-cream vendor in a school playground parking lot.

Lewis made a rambling statement, claiming at one point he would prefer a death sentence, before Judge Walter W. Stout III imposed the term for the Oct. 7 shooting that gravely wounded Daniel Teodorescu.

Lewis, 19, likely will be well into his 50s before he gets out of prison. He faces another sentencing April 14 in Chesterfield, where a jury has recommended a 16-year term for his role in the Oct. 10 robbery and throat slashing of a car-wash manager.

Lewis was convicted Feb. 11 in Richmond Circuit Court of six charges, including aggravated malicous wounding and attempted murder, for shooting Teodorescu in a playground parking lot of E.S.H. Greene Elementary School.

Teodorescu, a Romanian national who came to the United States to make money so he could marry his high school sweetheart, was less than two weeks from returning home at the time of the shooting.

He spent 22 days in VCU Medical Center and is continuing his recovery in the Richmond area. The shooting left him with what doctors say likely will be permanent damage to his right shoulder and vocal cords.

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Bryan Rhode pointed out that Lewis has an extensive criminal record of violent crimes, including another aggravated malicious wounding conviction in 2005. Lewis had just been released after serving half of his five-year term for that conviction three months before Teodorescu's shooting.

"He clearly knows no boundaries," Rhode said.

-- Joe Macenka