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< Dale Murphy

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=235571659877191&set=pb.100002730771046.-2207520000.1388372616.&type=3&theater The young couple from New Orleans, expecting a baby when the levees broke, struggled to return home after Hurricane Katrina washed away the lives they were building here. He had a criminal record. She had a GED and fast-food job prospects when they returned to the city with a newborn son, Dale Murphy III. By Nov. 7, 2006, the family was running errands and making last-minute arrangements to move into a new place when a teenage gunman ended their new life together. Dale Murphy Jr., 25, died lying on the pavement that morning. Wednesday -- the one-year anniversary of the street-corner killing -- an Orleans Parish jury convicted Kevin Robinson, 18, of manslaughter in the shooting. Robinson faces up to 40 years in prison when Judge Raymond Bigelow sentences him next month. Orleans Parish prosecutors secured the verdict by relying on a single eyewitness, LeSean Hodges, 20, the victim's girlfriend, who arrived late the night before trial to identify Robinson as her boyfriend's killer. "He aimed, he shot one time," Hodges told the jury, fingering Robinson in court. "Dale fell, and once he fell, he kept shooting." Life sentence avoided The jury deliberated 45 minutes before convicting Robinson of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Robinson was originally charged with second-degree murder, which carries mandatory life in prison without parole. "You're not going to hear from the kind of witnesses on 'CSI,'¤" prosecutor Tanya Faia told the jury in her opening statement, referring to the popular television crime drama in which scientific evidence always seems to confirm a killer's identity. "We have one eyewitness," Faia said. "It's the old-fashioned way to try a case." With the Robinson verdict, Faia and fellow prosecutor Mary Glass, part of the Violent Offender Unit created this summer, finished their fourth homicide trial since the first week of October. The trials, all of which ended in convictions, have been cases of street violence similar to the shooting of Murphy. Prosecutors in New Orleans have historically taken risks when going to trial without physical evidence, hanging their case on a single witness -- in a city where people often don't want to testify in open court. Only Hodges would come forward, they said. "In this city, if you're shot and you don't have someone who loves you by your side, then your case doesn't go to trial," Glass said during closing arguments. "Yes, there is one witness in this case. Welcome to New Orleans. Thank God we have a witness." Victim's record targeted Defense attorney Donald Pryor, who argued mistaken identity in trying to free Robinson, depicted the victim as a marijuana-smoking drug dealer who chose a dangerous lifestyle that came with violence. "If you live a life and associate with drugs, cocaine .¤¤. you got a problem," Pryor said. "I had a loved one murdered too. That's the life if you're out there, if you're running with 16-year-olds and you've got pot in your system and convictions for cocaine." Murphy had prior convictions for possession of cocaine and simple battery. "Does that mean you get to be executed?" Faia asked the jury. "If it is, God help us." Faia's voice broke as she reminded jurors of two children who will never see their father again. "What a shame we stand here a year later and there's a baby, an infant .¤.¤." she said, drawing an objection from Pryor, who tried to approach the judge to stop Faia's closing argument. Bigelow overruled Pryor. "I don't like that," Faia finished. "I object to that." Murphy and Hodges evacuated to the West Bank when Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005. They later awaited rescue on Interstate 10 near Causeway Boulevard. "We were under the bridge with all those people," Hodges said. A helicopter finally carried her, pregnant and believing she was having labor pains, out of the city. The couple went from San Antonio to Las Vegas and then to Houston, living off FEMA checks and minimum-wage jobs, she testified. Shortcut turns deadly They were in a city hotel by November 2006. The day of the killing, the couple were driving to a relative's house to get money to have the lights turned on in their new apartment. According to Hodges, they were taking a shortcut through the 9th Ward neighborhood where Murphy grew up when he spotted a friend. Murphy got out of the car, leaving his girlfriend and son waiting. Hodges grew impatient and got out, only to see Murphy fighting with some teenage boys. A crowd gathered, she said. Robinson shot Murphy once in the face, a bullet that entered his nose and exited his mouth, knocking out gold teeth he wore, she said. The second bullet went into Murphy's chest, causing him to bleed to death within a minute, a pathologist said. "Everything happened so fast," said Hodges, who fled the scene with her baby but returned after leaving him with relatives. "I was out there until they put him in a body bag. I watched all that." The day Murphy was killed, Hodges was carrying their second child. Neither knew about the pregnancy, she said. The 4-month-old boy attended part of the trial Wednesday. Hodges walked into the courtroom carrying him in her arms when prosecutors called her to the stand. Hodges, 20, said she won't return to New Orleans. She is working as a nurse's assistant in Texas, raising her two sons on her own. She missed the announcement of the jury's verdict Wednesday evening. She was catching a