A Mobile County Circuit Court jury and Judge Rick Stout convicted Brandon Ajizadeh, 21, a former University of South Alabama student, for stabbing his roommate, James Franklin Dean III, 19, to death.

Ajizadeh, who stabbed Dean with a butcher knife 24 times on July 9, 2011, has been awarded life imprisonment. He has to serve a minimum of 15 years before he can apply for an early release.

During the hearing last Thursday, prosecutors quoted jealously and rejection as motives in the stabbing death.

They also cited the most serious injury inflicted on the victim was a cut to the neck during which the killer twisted the knife.

"I think it's a very good sentence in this case ... It was a very brutal murder, a very vicious murder," Mobile County Assistant District Attorney JoBeth Murphree said. "I think defendants deserve to be treated fairly, and I think that's fair."

Defense attorney Jeff Deen said that his family members were devastated as his client had no prior criminal history.

Police arrived at the dorm room on the day of Dean's murder to find Ajizadeh next to the victim's body.

The defendant during police interrogations gave varied accounts as to why he was present at the murder scene, he said he woke up in strange clothes and was clueless about the incident and he walked into the dorm room to find Christopher Moore - another friend - stabbing Dean, who also threatened to kill him. He stayed behind to try to clean up the crime scene. Later during questioning, he claimed that the stabbing was in self-defense mechanism.

According to court records, Ajizadeh and Dean were mutual friends of Keenan Henderson, another man. Although Dean did not attend the University of South Alabama, Ajizadeh allowed him to stay in his dorm room.

Ajizadeh then grew jealous of Dean's friendship with Henderson. Matters became worse when Henderson found a shirtless photo of himself on Ajizadeh's cell phone. He unfriended Ajizadeh on Facebook.

Ajizadeh, in his defence, told Henderson he had the photo to motivate himself to get into better shape.