PROVIDENCE — The judge who presided at Barry Offley’s murder trial rejected Offley’s request for a new trial yesterday, characterizing the testimony Offley offered in his own defense as “wholly unworthy of belief.”

The ruling, by Judge Robert D. Krause in Superior Court, set the stage for Offley’s sentencing today on charges of murder, conspiracy to murder, assault with intent to murder, and discharge of a firearm, death resulting.

Offley, who was charged in the case along with his uncle, Alonzo P. Shelton, testified that Shelton gave him the small submachine gun that the police say was the murder weapon.

Taking the witness stand during his murder trial last year, Offley said the gun went off by accident when he took it out to scare Shelton’s former girlfriend, Julie Lang.

At that point, Offley testified, Shelton grabbed the gun from him and used it to shoot Lang and kill her friend, 24-year-old Jessica Imran.

The shooting, which took place July 27, 2006, in Imran’s apartment on Lawn Avenue in Pawtucket, set off a nationwide manhunt, with details of the crime and the identities of the suspects broadcast on America’s Most Wanted, the popular show on Fox TV.

The suspects’ identities were supplied by Lang, who, though left for dead, lived to recount the shooting, first to the police, then to the juries at Shelton’s and Offley’s trials.

Judge Krause, who ruled from the bench yesterday, said the central question was whether to believe Lang or Offley.

Lang, 28, testified that Offley shot and killed Imran, then turned the gun on her, only to have it jam.

At that point, she said, Shelton grabbed the gun and pumped four bullets into her, allegedly because she was insisting he admit that the crack cocaine Woonsocket police found in her pocketbook on Jan. 13, 2006, belonged to him.

“It’s pretty clear to me that the jury was well satisfied that the testimony of Julie Lang was the one that should be accepted, and I in no way fault them for having done that,” Krause said yesterday.

He scoffed at Offley’s assertion that the shooting was an accident. “It was no accident. It was an effort to execute two people,” Krause said.

Shelton, who was tried separately, was found guilty on May 9. He was sentenced by Krause to two consecutive life prison terms, ordered to serve the remaining 17 years of an earlier conviction for assault with a dangerous weapon, and ruled a habitual offender, which resulted in his getting another 25 years behind bars.

Krause ordered Shelton, 30, to serve all four sentences consecutively, meaning he will almost certainly remain in prison for the rest of his life.

Offley, who was found guilty Dec. 5, faces two consecutive life sentences — one for murder, the other for discharge of a firearm, death resulting.

He faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison as a result of his conviction for conspiracy to murder, and up to life in prison as a result of his conviction for the assault with intent to murder.

Offley is two days shy of his 21st birthday. He has been held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions since October 2006, when he and his uncle were brought back to Rhode Island from Ocala, Fla., where they fled after the shooting.

jcastell@projo.com