NILES, Mich. (WOWO) — A man already serving a 122-and-a-half-year sentence has been convicted in the death of a Niles teenager. Rease Pence, 20, was found guilty of first-degree murder and three additional counts in the 2022 shooting of 14-year-old Gavin Blankenship at the Arbor Trails apartment complex on May 12, 2022.

Pence had previously been convicted in 2023 of murdering two women in South Bend’s Laurel Woods Apartments earlier in 2022. For those crimes, he received 55 years for each murder plus 12-and-a-half years for a firearm enhancement.

Sentencing for the Blankenship case is scheduled for January 12. Because Pence was 17 at the time of the crime, the court may hold a Miller hearing to determine whether he is eligible for life without parole, in accordance with U.S. Supreme Court rulings prohibiting automatic life-without-parole sentences for juveniles except in rare cases.

The conviction marks another chapter in a series of violent crimes that have shaken the Niles community, and prosecutors say Pence’s sentence will reflect the severity of the offenses.