Following guilty verdicts at a jury trial conducted November 19 through 26, Jamauhle D. Brown was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Tuesday (Feb. 11) for the shooting death of Michael Smith in March of 2010.

In April of 2011, the Pettis County Grand Jury returned an Indictment charging Brown with murder in the first degree, armed criminal action, burglary in the first degree, commission of a felony to promote criminal street gang activity and tampering with physical evidence.  Due to his prior convictions for trafficking in the second degree, possession with intent to deliver and unlawful use of a weapon, Brown was tried as a persistent offender.

At the sentencing hearing this morning, Pettis County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Mittelhauser recommended that the sentences for murder, armed criminal action and tampering with physical evidence run concurrently with each other.  Mittelhauser went on to recommend that the sentences for burglary and gang activity run consecutively to the other sentences because those offenses involved different victims.  The burglary offense jeopardized Brown’s girlfriend and daughter, and the street gang activity was a crime against the community at large.  Circuit Judge Robert Koffman followed that recommendation, imposing sentences of life without parole for the murder count, life in prison for burglary, and 3 years for gang activity, all maximum penalties, and ordering that the sentences be served concurrently.

Mittelhauser cited the thorough, persistent investigation of the Sedalia Police Department, assisted in the early stages by the Mid Missouri Major Case Squad, as the key to the successful result.

This press release provided by Pettis County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Mittelhauser.

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