Life without parole for guy convicted of gunning down Afghanistan vet in the Theater District

A Suffolk Superior Court jury today found Peter Castillo guilty of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Stephen Perez on Tremont Street in 2012, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Castillo will be formally sentenced Monday, but the verdict means an automatic sentence of life without possibility of parole for shooting Perez in the back during a dispute in a Tremont Street garage.

Castillo was arrested in the Dominican Republic last year after fleeing Boston.

Castillo was convicted of first-degree murder under "the theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty and unlawful possession of a firearm," the DA's office reports.

At the time of his death, Perez, 22, had just returned home to Revere after two tours of duty with the Army in Afghanistan and was hoping to become a Revere police officer. He was a 2007 graduate of Revere High School.