May 15, 2009  |  By: Staff & Wire Reports  | COMMENTS     

DENVER (AP) — A man convicted last month of murder and a hate crime in the slaying of a transgender woman has received another 60 years in prison after being found a “habitual criminal.”

Allen Andrade of Thornton, Colo., was convicted of beating 18-year-old Angie Zapata to death with a fire extinguisher July 17 after discovering she was biologically male.

A judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder immediately after the jury’s April 22 verdict.

On May 8, Judge Marcelo Kopcow sentenced Andrade for his remaining three charges: bias-motivated crime, aggravated motor-vehicle theft and identity theft.

Kopcow determined the prosecution proved Andrade was a habitual criminal. The designation requires a sentence of four times the maximum for each underlying conviction.