A state Supreme Court ruling that calls into question life sentences for juvenile defendants served as the basis for an appellate court's decision Monday to vacate the sentence of an Irvington man in the 2007 execution-style slaying of a Jehovah's Witness in Newark.

In its opinion ordering Darien Weston be re-sentenced for the killing of Paul Phillips, the Superior Court's appellate division said a sentencing judge must now consider Weston's youthfulness, the circumstances of his crimes and whether he can be rehabilitated.

Weston, now 27, was 17 at the time prosecutors said he forced Phillips, 23, into a Dumpster in a Newark parking lot and shot him twice in the head with a .25-caliber handgun, after carjacking the man as he returned home from his church in Montclair.

Prosecutors said Phillips prayed as Weston shot him.

Darien Weston in an undated Dept. of Corrections photo.

"The event, from start to finish, took some 10 to 15 minutes and was witnessed by bystanders, including children, who were outside enjoying the summer evening," the appeals court said in its opinion Monday, noting the crime was "horrific."

The jury in Preston's first trial deadlocked on a charge of murder, but convicted him of kidnapping, weapons offenses and other charges. He was convicted of murder, felony murder and carjacking in a second trial in 2009.

Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin sentenced Weston to life in prison on the first-degree murder charge, to be served consecutive to a 30-year sentence for kidnapping and a five-year sentence for making terroristic threats.

"In other words," the appeals court wrote, "not calculating credit for time served, this defendant, who by 2016 was twenty-six years old, would not be eligible for parole for approximately eighty-nine years."

A 2017 decision by the state Supreme Court found that life-without-parole sentences for juveniles could constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Constitution, and has subsequently required sentencing judges to consider the defendant's youthfulness and other factors "to determine not only the length of the sentence, but the question of whether the sentences should be served consecutively."

Weston's convictions were overturned by an appeals court in 2013, but reinstated by the state Supreme Court less than two years later.

A new sentencing date has not yet been set, according to court records.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips