A Georgia soldier who claimed a crash diet drove him to kill a superior has been sentenced by a court-martial to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A military jury sentenced Staff Sgt. Rashad Valmont on Friday, a day after convicting him of premeditated murder in the June 2010 slaying of Master Sgt. Pedro Mercado at Fort Gillem outside Atlanta.

Valmont's attorneys say they'll appeal his conviction. They insist the 30-year-old Army Reserve soldier was delirious and dehydrated from crash dieting after a different supervisor ordered him to lose weight on a tight deadline.

Valmont walked into Mercado's office and shot him six times with a handgun. He then drove to a nearby police station and surrendered.

The trial was moved to Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia.