COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - A 26-year-old Oklahoma man has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the shooting death of a Columbia, Missouri, art dealer.
The Columbia Daily Tribune (http://bit.ly/1EnaNd4 ) reports Casey D. Lewis of Shawnee, Oklahoma, was convicted in February of first-degree murder in the April 10, 2013, slaying of Brian Daniels. Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty, so a life sentence was the only option.
Prosecutors say Lewis was hired by 25-year-old James Thompson to kill Daniels, who had received a nearly $5 million settlement in 2008 for a fire at his Warrensburg apartment that covered two-thirds of his body in third-degree burns.
Thompson was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in January.