Webster man gets 35 years in death of mother

A Webster man convicted in the death of his mother, who owned a flower shop, was sentenced on Wednesday to 35 years in prison.

Mark Dickey, who testified that he accidentally shot his mother in the back of the head as she reached into the open safe at her flower shop, was sentenced by state District Judge Catherine Evans.

Dickey, 46, faced a sentence ranging from five years to life in prison.

In his first trial, earlier this year, jurors deadlocked with 11 voting for murder and one voting for criminally negligent homicide. If he had been convicted of the lesser offense, his sentence would have been capped at two years.

Prosecutors had argued that Dickey was trying to collect on a large life insurance policy when he shot Brenda Dickey, 68, in the back of the head as she opened the safe at NASA Flowers on June 15, 2013.

Defense attorneys told jurors the shooting was an accident, saying his mother’s pistol discharged after Dickey tried to unjam it.

Dickey was managing the shop and called 911 to say the store was being robbed. When police arrived, he was hiding in the bathroom.

Inside the safe was a money bag with $1,400. The store’s cash registers were undisturbed.

Investigators later found a plastic bin that held a hooded sweatshirt, a glove and the gun, all of which had DNA or blood from Dickey and his mother, prosecutors said.

Dickey had said there was a robbery until the case went to trial in March, when his lawyer said Dickey accidentally shot his mother after clearing a bullet that had stuck in the slide of the weapon.