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A home­less man, who ad­mit­ted to killing a fel­low street dweller while at­tempt­ing to rob him of his co­caine stash, has been sen­tenced to a lit­tle over 16 years in prison.

In Feb­ru­ary, Fran­cis Roland was al­lowed to plead guilty to felony mur­der based on a plea agree­ment with the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP).

Un­der the felony mur­der rule, the manda­to­ry death penal­ty for mur­der is waived in cir­cum­stances where death oc­curs dur­ing the com­mis­sion of a less­er crim­i­nal of­fence, which in most cas­es is rob­bery.