Man gets 40 years for killing friend’s wife at party

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for fatally shooting a woman at his birthday party.

The Palm Beach Post reports that 41-year-old William Nunez Reyes was sentenced Friday. A jury convicted him in May of second-degree murder.

Authorities say Nunez Reyes was celebrating his 38th birthday at his friend’s West Palm Beach home in 2013 when he and the friend, Rodolfo Santana Diaz, got into a fight. Santana Diaz left the house for a short time and returned to find his wife, 31-year-old Ana Carolina Mejia, had been shot.

Nunez Reyes told deputies that Mejia was grabbing his arm, and he accidentally shot her. She later died at a hospital.

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Information from: The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, https://www.pbpost.com