An Atlanta man has been sentenced to life in prison for shooting two white women and murdering another, citing that his motives to target whites was due to ideas he learned in college.

A judge sentenced Nkosi Thandiwe, 23, on Thursday to spend the rest of his life in prison without parole after a jury found him guilty of murdering Brittany Watts, 26, in a Midtown Atlanta parking garage on July 15, 2011, CBS Atlanta reports. He also shot Lauren Garcia, 24, in the torso and Tiffany Ferenczy, 24, in the calf that day while they were walking across Crescent Avenue. Miss Garcia’s injuries left her paralyzed.

Thandiwe’s attorney made a last-minute insanity plea Wednesday for the judge to find that his client was in a trancelike state when he committed the crimes.

During his testimony Wednesday, Thandiwe suggested that his reason for purchasing a gun was to avenge white people after beliefs he had formed during his years as an anthropology major at the University of West Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

“I was trying to prove a point that Europeans had colonized the world, and as a result of that, we see a lot of evil today,” he testified. “In terms of slavery, it was something that needed to be answered for. I was trying to spread the message of making white people mend.”

His rage boiled over after two white people showed up at his black-centric “Peace Party” the night before the shooting.

“I was upset,” Thandiwe said. “I was still upset Friday. I took the gun to work because I was still upset from Thursday night.”

Fulton County Assistant District attorney Linda Dunikoski said the defendant’s crime was was not due to a temporary lapse in sanity.

“He told you he shot Brittney Watts, Lauren Garcia and Tiffany Ferenczy because he had adopted all these racist ideals,” she argued. “If race disorder was a [mental illness], then the Ku Klux Klan could murder and kill with impunity.”

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