A Lancaster man who a prosecutor called a “career criminal” and “cold-blooded killer” will serve the rest of his life in prison for fatally shooting 21-year-old Rahdir Maxton in the city in 2015.
Lancaster County Judge Donald Totaro sentenced Victor M. Tirado, 52, to the mandatory life sentence regarding a jury’s verdict last week finding Tirado guilty of first-degree murder.
“You have absolutely no regard for the rule of law or for the well-being of any other individual,” Judge Totaro said while ordering sentence Wednesday morning.
Assistant District Attorney Travis S. Anderson presented evidence at trial that Tirado shot Maxton in the back of the head Sept. 9, 2015, in a parking lot in the 200 block of East Fulton Street.
In court Wednesday, Maxton’s fiancé confronted Tirado, telling him she does not forgive him.
“You are sentenced to life, so it is going to hit you,” Kristin McNeil said, after Tirado declined to comment. “For the rest of your life, it is going to hit you what you did.”
McNeil said she sat in a hospital for three days “and watched my fiancé die.”
Tirado twice declined Judge Totaro’s offers to make a statement; his attorneys said he intends to appeal the jury’s verdict.
Anderson read a statement from Maxton’s mother in which she said she intends to attend every future appeal hearing.
“I was there when he took his first breath, and I was there when he took his last,” Maxton’s mother wrote in the statement. “He didn’t deserve to be so coldly taken. [To Tirado] You knew “Spanky.” He trusted you, Vic. You shot him from behind. Why?”
Anderson told the judge that considering Tirado’s prior criminal acts and this murder, “Today, he is going where he belongs.”
Lancaster city police Detective Stanley Roache, who filed charges, also attended the hearing.
MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @BrettHambright