Fulton man sentenced to 74 years for shooting and killing a man during an April 2019 drug deal
FULTON, Mo. (KMIZ)
A jury found a Fulton man guilty of an April 2019 drug deal that led to a fatal shooting and he was sentenced to over 70 years in prison.
Justin Ray Witt, 51, of Fulton, was sentenced to 74 years in prison after being found guilty on March 31.
Witt was found guilty on all charges of attempted possession of a controlled substance, attempted stealing by deceit, unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, murder in the second degree and armed criminal action.
Witt had been charged with shooting and killing Nathan Pritchett, Jr., with a 20-gauge shotgun during a drug transaction.
A Boone County jury found Witt guilty of all the charges, including murder in the second degree pursuant to the felony murder rule, after just over an hour of deliberation.
The judge overruled Witt’s motion for a new trial.
The judge then sentenced Witt to 4 years in prison on each of the charges of attempted possession of a controlled substance, attempted stealing by deceit and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The judge sentenced Witt to 30 years in prison for murder in the second degree and 40 years in prison for armed criminal action. The judge ordered that the 30-year sentence for the murder conviction run consecutively to the 4-year sentences and that the 40-year sentence for armed criminal action run consecutively to all other sentences for a total of 74 years in prison.
