ST. LOUIS (AP) - A St. Louis man has pleaded guilty to killing another man in the parking lot of a grocery store in exchange for a 14-year prison term.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 29-year-old Lamarkis Cowan's first-degree murder trial was set to begin this week when he pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter in the December 2016 shooting death of 20-year-old Kevin Brown. Authorities say Brown was running away after a fight inside the store when he was shot. Cowan turned himself in days after the shooting.
Cowan's lawyer, Jeremy Beaird, says Cowan would have offered a self-defense claim at trial this week but that taking the state's plea offer "was in the best interest of all the parties."