MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — A 19-year-old man convicted of killing two teenagers on Christmas Day in 2024 was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.

Jeremiah Taylor was sentenced in Milwaukee County Circuit Court after being found guilty of two counts of first-degree intentional homicide with use of a dangerous weapon in the deaths of 15-year-old Exziel Rivera and 18-year-old Nayah Vasquez.

A jury convicted Taylor after a trial. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges in September 2025.

The shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. Dec. 25, 2024, near South 37th and West Scott streets.

According to prosecutors, co-defendant Quintarez Morris was driving while Taylor shot the two teenagers.

Rivera died at the scene. Vasquez was taken to a hospital, where she later died.

Morris previously pleaded guilty to harboring or aiding a felon and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Ashlee Knight, a nurse who was celebrating Christmas at home nearby, witnessed the aftermath of the shooting and tried to help the victims before paramedics arrived.

"The young man was laying on the sidewalk. I checked his pulse," Knight said.

Knight said she then climbed into a vehicle to help Vasquez.

"She was in very rough shape. She had a gunshot wound to her head," Knight said.

Knight said the violence was especially difficult to witness on Christmas Day.

"Those are kids," she said. "You know, I just talked to both of their parents and consoled them on Christmas, and that's the hard part."

Taylor will now begin serving his life sentence for the two killings.