ST. MATTHEWS — A judge sentenced a Virginia man to death Friday afternoon for killing an off-duty police officer two years ago.

Mikal Deen Mahdi, 23, is now the youngest person on South Carolina’s Death Row.

He pleaded guilty last week to killing Orangeburg Public Safety Capt. James Myers, 56, in a shed on Myers’ farm in central South Carolina in July 2004. Myers’ body and the shed were set on fire.

Judge Clifton Newman handed down the death sentence at the Calhoun County courthouse after hearing three days of testimony and arguments. He said Mahdi showed no remorse, shooting the officer nine times.

Before Mahdi pleaded guilty, deputies found a homemade, ½-inch handcuff key in his pocket.

That discovery made a big impression on the judge, who noted Mahdi pleaded guilty only after the key was found. He also pointed out Mahdi managed to make the key in one of the most secure areas of a maximum-security prison in Columbia, indicating he would not adapt to prison life.

Newman said he tries to find a balance between justice and mercy by looking for humanity in the people who come before him. “That sense of humanity seems not exist in Mikal Deen Mahdi,” he said.

South Carolina Corrections Department Capt. Gary Lane called Mahdi one of the six worst prisoners in the state system and other officers brought in rope, pieces of metal and other items that have been found on Mahdi since his arrest.

Myers’ father, daughter and other family members packed the courtroom along with a number of fellow officers. But everyone remained calm as the sentence was read, including Mahdi, who stood still in front of the bench.

Myers’ daughter Meredith Firestone said she looked at her father’s picture just before getting out of her car so she could be prepared in the courtroom.

“I hope this gave him some justice and he is proud of our family and how we conducted ourselves,” Firestone said.

Marjorie Hammock, a social worker, testified Mahdi’s bleak upbringing never gave him a chance. Mahdi was abandoned by his mother and raised by an abusive father who sent him to live with an uncle briefly. After he was released from a Virginia prison in May 2004, Mahdi lived with his grandmother in Lawrenceville, Va.

“Because of the abuse, neglect and abandonment issues, he is likely to end up in a situation where he does damage to himself or to others, which is why we’re here,” Hammond said.

But the judge said while Mahdi’s upbringing “may have been less than ideal,” it did not justify the crimes he committed.

The defense had asked the judge to consider Mahdi’s youth — he was 21 at the time of the crime — during the sentencing.

The judge noted Mahdi had been in and out of correctional facilities since he was 14. “He was well aware of the severity of these crimes and the possible consequences,” Newman said. “I find nothing about his age that mitigates or lessens his culpability.”

Mahdi was fleeing police during a multistate crime spree that included the killing of a North Carolina convenience store clerk a week before Myers’ death and a carjacking in Columbia, authorities have said.

He was arrested July 21, 2004, when Myers’ unmarked police pickup truck — filled with weapons, ammunition and body armor — was spotted in Satellite Beach, Fla.

The judge said as Mahdi was arrested, he told officers he would have killed them if the semiautomatic weapon he stole from Myers hadn’t been stuck.