PITTSBURGH - The Pennsylvania Superior Court has ordered that a sentence of life without parole be reinstated for a man who was 17-years-old when investigators say he killed a counselor at George Junior Republic residential treatment center in Mercer County.

That was the original sentence handed down against twenty-eight-year-old Anthony Machicote after he was found guilty for his part in the 2003 strangulation death of GJR night supervisor Wayne Urey.

However Machicote appealed the sentence arguing that a 2012 Supreme Court decision made mandatory life sentences for juvenile killers illegal.

Machicote was re-sentenced to life in prison, but with eligibility for parole when he turns 58.

Prosecutors appealed that ruling to the Superior Court which ruled last week that the Supreme Court decision did not apply in the case against Machicote.

The case was sent back to the lower court with orders to reinstate the original sentence of life without parole.

According to court records, Machicote and Jeremy Melvin, who was also 17-years-old at the time, where both housed at George Junior Republic, a facility for delinquent and dependent children in Pine Township.

Authorities say on November 10, 2003, Machicote called night supervisor Wayne Urey, Jr. to his room by faking an illness.

Melvin came up behind Urey and locked him in a choke hold while Machicote tied Urey’s legs with a sheet.

Melvin put a sock in Urey’s mouth and tied a sheet around it. Machicote and Melvin stole Urey’s money, keys, and car and fled from the facility.

Later that day, Machicote and Melvin confessed the details of the incident to a school security guard and turned themselves in to police.

Urey suffocated as a result of the incident.

Melvin, now 28-years-old, was also sentenced to life in prison.