Jeromie Cancel "Chilling" Killer, Gets 25-to-Life for Murdering NY College Student

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Twenty-four-year-old Jeromie Cancel smirked and applauded as he was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years to life in prison for the 2008 murder of a New York college student.

Cancel received the maximum possible sentence from Supreme Court Justice Daniel FitzGerald who called his apparently remorseless attitude "chilling and inhuman."

"I don't think you even understand the basic notion of mercy," FitzGerald told Cancel, "so you'll get none from me."

Cancel was convicted last month of murdering 19-year-old Pace University student Kevin Pravia in the student's apartment August 2008.

Cancel, a transient at the time, reportedly crossed paths with Pravia, a sophomore, when he was headed home from a night out. Plotting a robbery to get money to buy drugs, Cancel exploited Pravia's drunkenness to get invited to the student's apartment, prosecutors said.

After Pravia fell asleep, Cancel collected the student's laptop computer and other electronics to steal - and then decided to choke Pravia with an electric cord because he was bored, Cancel told police.

Michael Alperstein, Cancel's lawyer, noted that his client has a long history of emotional and psychological problems, including suicide attempts starting when he was just 10-years-old, according to testimony at this trial.

Alperstein asked the judge to consider that "unlike Mr. Pravia, (Cancel) has a life in front of him."

Pravia, an honors student from Peru, Mass., aspired to open a clothing store in New York someday, his mother said.