Texas teen gets life for killing Tennessee state trooper

A Texas teenager has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for killing a Tennessee state trooper in January 2007.

Alejandro Gauna, 18, of Austin, received the sentence Wednesday in Covington, Tenn., after the jury deadlocked on whether he would get life with or without parole. That left the judge no choice but to give him life with parole.

Gauna was on a marijuana selling trip with a companion looking for customers when he shot trooper Calvin Jenks, 24, to death on a rural highway during a traffic stop. The trooper was shot twice in the head after sticking his head through the car window saying he smelled marijuana.

Gauna apologized to the trooper's family: "I was a stupid kid who made a stupid mistake."

-- Lance Murray