Plea agreement in stabbing case shortens prison time by 25 years

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Boone County man will now serve a fraction of his original sentence after a plea agreement in a 2014 death.

Anthony Shegog pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Monday. He was sentenced to 5 years with credit for time served during his previous conviction.

Shegog was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2015 after his second-degree murder conviction for the stabbing death of Wayne Lige in Columbia.

Judge Kevin Crane vacated the conviction and sentence in July of 2018, ruling that Shegog deserved a new trial because his public defender in the original case was ineffective.

The ruling centered on parts of phone call recordings from jail used as evidence during Shegog's trial. Shegog's new attorney claimed those sections were taken out of context and that his trial attorney should have objected to their admission or taken some action against the state's use of the recordings.

Crane ruled the lack of the defense attorney's actions on those recordings violated Shegog's constitutional right to counsel.

Prosecutors claimed that during the jailhouse conversations Shegog spoke of "karma" in regard to Lige's death and that he didn't want Lige to "disrespect him in his own home."

In his ruling, Crane wrote that "when the recording is listened to in its entirety," it is clear that Shegog and his friend are discussing Shegog's girlfriend at the time, Diana Barney. Barney was set to be a witness for prosecutors but was hit by a car and killed before the trial.

That out-of-context presentation could have affected the jury's decision, Crane ruled.

Shegog began his new sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections on Monday.