A Jackson County judge on Friday sentenced Garron Briggs, 30, to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 30 years, for his part in the 2011 fatal shooting of Edward L. Ewing and the wounding of a second victim, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.

Briggs was convicted in December by a Jackson County jury of Murder in the 1st Degree, Assault in the 1st Degree and two counts of Armed Criminal Action.

On Friday, the judge sentenced him to life without parole on the Murder in the 1st Degree conviction, and 30 years in prison for the Assault and 10 years for each of the Armed Criminal Action convictions. The judge set the sentences for the Murder conviction and Armed Criminal Action to run consecutive to the Assault and second Armed Criminal Action sentences – a total of life without parole, plus 30 years in prison.

According to court records, a man was killed and a second victim was injured in an August 2011 home invasion. The second victim returned to her home in the 7000 block of East 85th Terrace about 1 a.m. and saw three men, Briggs among them, approach her. After forcing the victim to unlock the home’s front door, Briggs forced the victim to lie on the living room floor while the two other men went into a bedroom and began looking for something they couldn’t find.
They repeatedly asked Edward Ewing, the second victim’s boyfriend, for “stuff,” but they couldn’t find what they were looking for. Then Briggs pointed a gun at the victim and shot her. She kept silent in hopes she wouldn’t be shot again, then heard gunshots from a bedroom. The victim later called 911 on her cellphone and then crawled to the bedroom of her infant daughter, where she found Ewing’s lifeless body against a wall after having been shot multiple times.

Briggs last year was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his role in a $7.5 million conspiracy to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine.