WA teen gets life for killing cabbie

A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison without the chance of release for killing a cabbie last year in SeaTac, shooting the driver twice in the head and setting him on fire.

Earnest Collins Jr. had said he was not the cigarette-smoking gunman who killed Jagjit Singh early July 10 from the back of Singh's taxi.

But the slaying was caught on a surveillance camera mounted in the car and jurors convicted Collins of first-degree aggravated murder in April, believing he killed the 43-year-old immigrant from India to cover up a robbery. Collins also was convicted of first-degree arson.

Firefighters called to douse the blaze engulfing Singh's Farwest taxicab found his body inside.

King County Superior Court Judge Chris Washington sentenced Collins on Friday.

Singh was working the night shift in the Seattle area to support his wife and 11-year-old daughter in India.

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Information from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://www.seattle-pi.com/