TEEN SENTENCED FOR ROLE IN MURDER.(Capital Region)

SCHENECTADY -- Just days after being released from jail in 2007, Kussun Brown hooked up with a drug dealer buddy and the pair gunned down a rival drug dealer on a city street.

Authorities say Brown, 16 at the time, was behind the wheel of the minivan that Craig Thompson fired from, killing Thompson's rival Hassan Rainey in Schenectady's Hamilton Hill neighborhood. Rainey and Thompson feuded over drug turf and a personal beef, according to prosecutors.

Thompson was last month sentenced to 25 years to life in October after jurors convicted him of second-degree murder.

Schenectady County Judge Karen Drago on Friday sentenced Brown to 10 years for a gun offense related to the September 2007 murder. He had earlier admitted to criminal possession of a weapon for having a .22 caliber gun authorities say he didn't use.

The teen also received two years for pleading guilty to criminal sale of a controlled substance. The penalties will run consecutively. An additional 10 years he got Friday for a gun charge stemming from an arrest in Warren County will run concurrently to the two other penalties. Police say he was nabbed with the .22 after the deadly Schenectady shooting. All told, he will have to serve 12 years before being eligible for parole.

His public defender Brian Mercy cited Brown's age and lack of adult supervision in seeking leniency from the court.

"Here is a young man surrounded by the wrong people ... age is a factor in the wrong decisions he's made," Mercy told the court.

Drago said Brown is a danger to the community but expressed hope he could take advantage of programs in prison to turn his life around.

Brown did not to speak during the sentencing.

Drago noted that he would have received a much harsher sentence if he not agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the Rainey murder.

PULLOUT:

"Here is a young man surrounded by the wrong people ... age is a factor in the wrong decisions he's made."

Brian Mercy

public defender