Man gets decade in prison for east Columbia shooting

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia man was sentenced to a decade in prison last week for a spring 2022 shooting on Orchard Lane.

Marquez Elam pleaded guilty last Monday to charges of second-degree assault and shooting a gun in an inhabited area, according to court records. Circuit Judge Brouck Jacobs gave Elam seven years for assault and three years for firing the gun, to be served consecutively.

Witnesses said Marquez Elam fired at several people in the area of McKee Street and Orchard Lane from inside an SUV in April 2022, according to police. One victim had "critical" leg injuries, police said at the time.

Surveillance footage from a nearby liquor store and from the home where the shooting occurred confirmed Elam was in the area at the time of the shooting, according to a probable cause statement. The statement says Elam intentionally tried to get away from officers when they showed up to arrest him.

He will be credited with 504 days of time served.

Elam is in the custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections and is being held at the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center, according to the department's inmate lookup website.