Man gets 25 years to life for 2022 Albany murder

An Albany man was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years to life in prison for a 2022 murder.

Roland Riggins, 19, pleaded guilty in connection with the killing of Christopher Bryant on April 29, 2022, in the area of Grand Street and Madison Avenue in Albany. This was the city’s first homicide of 2022.

Two other people were sentenced last week for the same murder. Justin Walker got to 30 ½ years to life and Jordan McKenzie got 23 years to life. They were convicted earlier this year.

Prosecutors had said that Riggins and McKenzie had hired Walker to kill Bryant because he had identified one of them as a snitch.

Stephanie, a relative of the victim, said that Bryant had a good heart was a positive person. Riggins took him away from his family and his two kids.

“The worst thing about it is, you didn’t even know him,” she said in a statement released by the Albany County District Attorney’s Office. “Now there’s two lives lost; yours and his.”

District Attorney David Soares also issued a statement about the case:

“Young men who are coming of age absolutely must be surrounded by the right influences,” he said. “This case is a tragic example of why. This defendant didn’t just senselessly kill a man at the direction of others; he permanently altered the course of his own life and wasted his potential.”