HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia man has been sentenced to life in prison with the chance for parole after 15 years in the fatal shooting of a Marshall University student.
Media outlets report 22-year-old Joshua Earl Lomax McDowney of Huntington was sentenced after entering a Kennedy plea Tuesday to first-degree murder in the 2016 shooting of 21-year-old Derick Brown. Under the Kennedy rule, a defendant doesn’t admit guilt.
Huntington police officer Dakota Dishman testified at a preliminary hearing that McDowney was wearing a mask when he entered an apartment occupied by Brown and several other people. According to witnesses, Brown fired his weapon first before McDowney returned fire, striking Brown in the heart.
Dishman testified $7,500 in cash was found at the apartment along with a variety of drugs.