RIVERSIDE - A Los Angeles gang member who gunned down a 13-year- old boy after being kicked out of a Corona birthday party where he had gone looking to start a fight was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lewis Gray, 32, fatally shot Daveon Lee on Oct. 12, 2002. Gray was convicted in November 2011 of first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of killing for the benefit of a street gang and committing a murder while a fugitive from justice.

The Crips gang member faced capital punishment, but two separate juries deadlocked on whether he should receive the death penalty. The Riverside County District Attorney's Office decided not to pursue a third penalty trial.

"I firmly believe this man deserves the death penalty, but I understand why jurors might have had reservations," Deputy District Attorney John Aki told City News Service. "There were a lot of shots fired and more than one person firing them. Some jurors just couldn't bring themselves to send him to death row because of that."

In Gray's first penalty trial in 2011, jurors voted 10-2 in favor of execution. Last November, jurors in the penalty retrial voted 8-4 in favor.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Christian Thierbach today imposed the sentence required by law.

According to trial testimony, Gray killed Daveon while firing into a crowd outside Advertisement

[ Metalography ] a house on Kilworth Drive. The victim was among 150 youths celebrating a friend's 16th birthday when Gray and fellow gang members crashed the party.

The men, members of the Los Angeles-based "Hoover 94" gang, had gone to the location searching for a 17-year-old boy whom Gray wanted to beat up for disrespecting him on an earlier occasion, according to witnesses.

The defendant and his friends pounced on the teen, prompting adult chaperones to order all the partygoers to leave.

According to Aki, Gray and five co-defendants fired at least 20 rounds at the house, striking only Daveon, who was shot in the back of the head.

Gray, his brother, Mario, and five others were arrested and charged in connection with the case four years later. All have been convicted. Only Gray faced capital punishment.

Before and after Daveon's murder, Gray engaged in numerous acts of violence, according to the prosecution.

The defendant killed a Los Angeles man, and allegedly attempted to kill two men on the Cal State San Bernardino campus eight days before the birthday party attack.

The two victims testified that, without provocation, they were shot at while parking adjacent to a building where a frat party was raging. The driver, Norris Ellington of Los Angeles, said he suffered four gunshot wounds. He could not identify his assailant but did acknowledge that the shooter resembled Gray.