More than a dozen heavily armed deputies and police officers stood guard inside and outside a Ramsey County courtroom Tuesday as 19-year-old Marquez Storey was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for killing a rival gang member last summer in St. Paul.

Nina Mitchell, mother of the victim, Dionte Montantes, 18, cried as she talked about how her "life changed dramatically on June 19, 2009."

"It was the worst day of my life, our family's life," she said. "I cried and cried as I laid across my child's lifeless body. I felt like a bad parent because I couldn't kiss his wounds and tell him it would be OK."

Storey expressed no remorse when it was his turn to speak. "First off, I don't feel sorry for anybody in the courtroom," he said. "If it were the other way around, they'd feel the same way. ... I think I'm getting too much time for something that was gang-related. He was a gangbanger, too."

Storey pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder, crime committed for the benefit of a gang.

District Judge Marybeth Dorn told Storey, "What strikes me the most is your inability to understand the value of life ... I hope that at 38 or 39, when you're eligible for release ... you come out valuing your life and others. I hope your mother never has to stand here with a broken heart like Ms. Mitchell."

PAT PHEIFER