Brighton man convicted of murdering Cape man in what turned out to be a bogus pot deal

A Suffolk Superior Court jury today convicted Patrick Malone, 26, of Brighton, of second-degree murder for the shooting death of Leroy Cooper on Leicester Street in 2012, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

The verdict means an automatic sentence of life, but with possibility of parole after 15 years.

Prosecutors convinced the jury that Malone and a second man lured Cooper, a Brewster resident, to Leicester Street by promising him they would buy some pot from him. Instead, prosecutors said, Malone robbed Cooper and then fatally shot him.

His alleged accomplice, Robert Williams, was tried separately last year and was acquitted.