The man responsible for holding customers and workers at a Los Angeles Trader Joe’s hostage in 2018, which resulted in the Los Angeles Police Department’s fatal shooting of an employee, was sentenced to more than 200 years in prison this week.
Gene Evin Atkins was sentenced to 236 years to life in prison on Wednesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said. Atkins was found guilty of one count of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Melyda “Mely” Corado, who was an assistant manager at Trader Joe’s.
“I’m happy it’s over,” Corado’s brother Albert Corado told SFGATE on Thursday. “Gene Atkins is going to spend the rest of his life in prison. [It] doesn’t make me happy. … I’m kind of indifferent to it because what really remains is that Mely is still not here.”…