BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A Baton Rouge man’s second-degree murder conviction in the shooting death of his brother-in-law has been reinstated by a state appeals court.
Media outlets report that on Wednesday, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision of District Judge Trudy White, who last summer threw out jurors’ March 2015 verdict and found 50-year-old Derrick Bland guilty of negligent homicide.
Bland faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for second-degree murder in the 2013 slaying of James “Mucci” Stockton. Negligent homicide carries a sentence of up to five years.
Bland’s attorney, Mark Plaisance, says he’s asking the Louisiana Supreme Court to review the 1st Circuit’s decision. He says Bland was unable to form specific intent to commit second-degree murder because of his intoxication.
Prosecutors say Bland waited outside Stockton’s apartment and shot Stockton as he left.
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