A man convicted of shooting his younger sister’s friend in Biddeford two years ago was sentenced on Monday to 50 years in prison.

Lorenze Labonte, 27, was found guilty of murder in the death of Ahmed Sharif after a weeklong jury trial this summer. Labonte shot Sharif on Nov. 24, 2023, prosecutors have said, suggesting Labonte was angry that Sharif was hanging out with his sister, who was 18 at the time.

Sharif was the youngest of 17 siblings and precious to all of his family, especially their mother, his oldest brother Abdi Sharif said in court on Monday.

“He had dreams and he had hopes,” Abdi Sharif said, as a picture of Ahmed Sharif in a graduation gown and cap looked down from a large pair of courtroom screens.

Ahmed Sharif’s siblings said Monday that he was thinking of taking a job with one of his brothers before he died, and that he had wanted to visit Africa. Sharif was 27.

Sharif’s family sat quietly as a prosecutor listed the evidence from Labonte’s trial for a judge.

Labonte and his sister Ariana Tito had fought on the morning of Nov. 24, 2023, after she posted a picture of her and Sharif at her mother’s home in Biddeford. Labonte then asked two friends for a ride to Biddeford, where, before shooting Sharif, prosecutors said he told his 10-year-old sister to visit a friend’s home down the street.

After the shooting, prosecutors said, Labonte fled for Massachusetts. On the way, Labonte’s friends said they heard him talking on the phone about a shooting and his belief that Sharif had caused the overdose death of a friend’s sister.

“As a family, we are Muslims. We believe in forgiveness, no matter the circumstances and what has happened,” Abdi Sharif said in court. But this case has made that hard for some of Sharif’s relatives, he said, adding Labonte seems to show no remorse. Some relatives are still in therapy, he said. One sister added that her kids ask about their uncle regularly.

The day the verdict was read, on July 2, Labonte shouted “thug life” as corrections officers took him out of the courtroom. When one of Sharif’s relatives shouted back, several court marshals escorted the Sharif family from the courthouse and watched until they left the parking lot.

Several marshals watched over the Sharif family in the courtroom Monday. The family remained silent as a prosecutor played a recording of a phone conversation between Labonte and his uncle after the trial in which Labonte bragged about the “thug life” incident and used several slurs when referring to the Sharif family.

Labonte apologized to the Sharif family about the incident in court. He told Sharif’s family he only intended the insult to be directed at police and prosecutors and that his “emotions had been all over the place.”

Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Ackerman questioned whether Labonte’s apology was genuine.

“To hear the Sharif family has thought about forgiveness really speaks to their grace and their kindness,” Ackerman said in court. “That is not a grace or a kindness that this defendant has shown to this family, or to their culture or ethnicity.”

Labonte didn’t specifically apologize in court for shooting Sharif — his lawyer Verne Paradie said they intend to appeal and he advised his client to speak carefully — but he told Sharif’s family he was sorry and that he wishes them peace and healing.

Paradie said Labonte’s behavior models that of the adults he grew up with. He said Labonte’s father has spent long stints in prison and was recently sentenced to eight years for a fatal robbery in Portland. Paradie said Labonte spent his childhood in foster care and the Long Creek Youth Development Center.

“I believe in my heart they failed him,” his mother Roxy Labonte said in court while her son cried. She described her son as a protector of his younger sisters.

Tito is in prison after pleading guilty to nearly killing Labonte’s fiancée in a shooting within days of Sharif’s death. Tito did not testify in Labonte’s trial, but prosecutors did call their youngest sister to the stand.

Labonte has been barred from contacting several family members while at the Maine State Prison, where prosecutors said he was transferred before his trial because he kept calling people he wasn’t supposed to. Paradie said in court his client has spent much of that time in solitary confinement.

Labonte was also sentenced Monday for having a firearm, despite felony convictions, including counts of domestic violence terrorizing and stalking from 2018.

He was also ordered to pay $4,500 in restitution to the victim compensation’s fund, which is what Sharif’s family spent on his funeral.