Oklahoma man sentenced to life in prison for hate crime murder of neighbor

TULSA, Okla. -- (KFOR) -- An Oklahoma man who was convicted of killing his neighbor following months of harassment has been sentenced to life in prison.

Earlier this month, Stanley Vernon Majors was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Khalid Jabara.

Majors, 63, was also found guilty of malicious intimidation and harassment, a hate crime, and threatening an act of violence.

Prosecutors allege that Majors walked up to the front steps of the family's home and shot and killed Jabara in August of 2016.

The Jabara family says the murder was fueled by hatred, adding that it never should have been allowed to happen. They say they told police about a barrage of racist taunts coming from next door but said the hate persisted. They got a protective order to keep Majors away but said nothing changed. They complained he wasn't complying – and then he allegedly ran down Khalid's mother, Haifa, with his car.

The family claims that Majors would shout that they were “dirty Arabs,” “dirty Lebanese” and called them “Mooslems.” They say he apparently had no idea they were Christians who fled civil war and religious persecution in Lebanon decades ago.

Defense attorneys argued that Majors was mentally ill at the time of the shooting, arguing that he feared that Jabara's family targeted him because he is gay.

A jury ultimately found him guilty of the murder, malicious intimidation and harassment and threatening an act of violence.

On Tuesday, a judge sentenced Majors to life without the possibility of parole plus 11 years and six months, according to the Tulsa World.