South Carolina ? A Virginia man was sentenced to death Friday for killing an off-duty South Carolina police officer and setting his body on fire during a multistate crime spree two years ago.

Mikal Deen Mahdi, 23, now the youngest person on the state’s death row, pleaded guilty last week to shooting Orangeburg Public Safety Capt. James Myers, 56, nine times in a shed on Myers’ farm.

Judge Clifton Newman said Mahdi showed no remorse and noted that Mahdi only pleaded guilty after a homemade handcuff key was found in his pocket.

A social worker had testified that Mahdi’s bleak upbringing with an abusive father never gave him a chance in life. But the judge said while Mahdi’s upbringing “may have been less than ideal,” it did not justify the crimes he committed.

During his crime spree, Mahdi killed a North Carolina convenience store clerk, carjacked a sport utility vehicle in Columbia and tried to buy fuel with a stolen credit card, prosecutors said. A clerk became suspicious and called police, and Mahdi fled, ending up at Myers’ central South Carolina farm, officials said. He was later arrested in Florida.