Video: Starkville Man Handed Down 40-Year Sentence

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) — A Starkville man is handed the maximum sentence in the May 2010 high school graduation after party shooting that left four people shot, one fatally.

After a 7-hour deliberation Oct. 31, a jury found 22-year-old Dennis Thompson guilty of second degree murder in the shooting death of 25-year-old Curtis “C.K.” Randle. Thompson wounded three others that night.

Four years after the May 2010 incident, Thompson, who was also found guilty of three aggravated assault charges, was led before Judge Lee Coleman for sentencing. Thompson asked the court for leniency, saying he was sorry for the shooting.

“Well, sorry is the word that people use when they have made a mistake, but sometimes you got to be held accountable for your mistake. And Dennis Thompson made a mistake, a tragic mistake, by killing our son,” Randle’s father Curtis Logan said.

Randle’s sister, Lasonia Randle Ferguson, spoke of her loss and asked the court for the maximum sentence to be handed down, and that’s what happened.

“He did, and he got 30 years on the murder charge, plus five years on two of the aggravated assaults to run consecutive. So, the sentence is 40 years,” Assistant DA Mark Jackson said.

Thompson’s attorneys had argued self defense on behalf of their client.

“The facts in this case both from state’s witnesses and defense counsel witness admit that our client was being attacked,” Chokwe Lumumba, Thompson’s attorney, said. “Now, the degree of that attack may be what is in dispute.”

“This is a situation where they lost a young man, 25 years old, their son,” Jackson said. “And a little girl lost her dad, and you don’t ever get over it, but you do your best to pick up and move on. And in this case, they feel like they got some justice.”

“I’m sad that it happened to ‘C.K.,’ but I think justice system did a good job by solving the case and we can move on with our life,” Logan said.

The defense attorneys who unsuccessfully argued for a self-defense ruling in the case are planning an appeal.

Categories: Crime, Local News

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