BANGOR — A Maine man convicted of killing a rival on a Bangor street has received a 35-year sentence in a court hearing that featured heavy security.

Prosecutor Andrew Benson called 22-year-old Zachary Carr a “gang-banger wannabe” as the sentence was imposed today in Penobscot County Superior Court.

Afterward, police were summoned outside after a friend of victim 19-year-old John “Bobby” Surles reported that one of Carr’s friends made a threat. Michel Morin-Smith told WZON that the man lifted his shirt to display a gun holster, and suggested he was lucky there was no weapon in it.

Police seized a handgun from a vehicle.

Surles died the day after the Jan. 27, 2010, shooting. Carr’s lawyer says the death stemmed from a street fight that had nothing to do with gangs.


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