WINNIPEG - A life sentence has been handed down to a man in Winnipeg who was convicted of shooting two men with a pistol that was last registered to the New York Police Department.

A courtroom heard Monday that a Glock nine-millimetre gun was used by Randy Murray Williams to kill Darren Joey Swampy and Lee Brady Spence in February 2011.

But the gun was not registered in Canada and the Crown admits no one knows how it got across the border.

Williams, who is 29, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was ordered to spend at least 12 years in prison before he's eligible for parole.

Court heard the accused retrieved the gun from an unknown location after being thrown out of a party following a fight and started shooting indiscriminately in a group of men in a separate area of the city.

The defence argued that Williams' actions were influenced by the fight and that the shooting was not planned.