NEOSHO, Mo. (AP) — A 46-year-old St. Louis man acquitted in the shooting of a Jasper County deputy was sentenced to 10 years in prison on a related charge of illegally possessing a firearm.
E.F. Fitchpatrick was sentenced Thursday.
He pleaded guilty to the charge in July before his trial in the wounding of Deputy Nolan Murray in March 2017 at a Joplin motel.
He was acquitted of first-degree assault and armed criminal action in that case.
The Joplin Globe reports Murray was shot while trying to serve a search warrant at the motel.
Fitchpatrick, who acknowledged he was a drug dealer, said he fired at Murray through a door because he thought Joplin gang members were trying to break into his room and rob him.
Fitchpatrick was not allowed to have firearms because he has prior felony convictions.
