Man gets 13 years for ‘straight up killing’
A man who may have shot his ex-girlfriend’s brother over a $20 debt has been sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Marcus D. Sutton, 32, was originally charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the nearly execution-style slaying of Elbert Craig in front of three passengers in the car he was driving.
But proof issues in the case made prosecutors negotiate a deal in which Sutton pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide, for which the maximum penalty is 15 years in prison plus 10 years of extended supervision.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Lonski told Circuit Judge Mark Sanders that none of the three women in the car with Sutton — including his new girlfriend, who was in a Facebook dispute with his ex — would have been very good witnesses.
He said that’s why the charge was reduced in the plea deal, and why he was asking for the maximum sentence. He cited Sutton’s criminal history going back 17 years, including two gun offenses. He also called the killing even more senseless than the many he’s prosecuted.
“It seems like he thought, ‘There’s a guy. I’ll shoot him,’ ” Lonski said. “That makes me think he’s very dangerous“and should get the longest prison term possible.
Sutton’s attorney, Travis Schwantes, suggested eight years plus five on supervision would be more appropriate. He told Sanders he had been prepared to go to trial to suggest Sutton’s girlfriend — who owned the gun and had the beef with the victim’s sister — was the real shooter, until Sutton himself suddenly proposed he would plead guilty to the reduced charge.
Sanders said no matter what the charge in the conviction, Sutton’s conduct bore on the sentencing decision.
“This is a straight up killing over $20,” he said somewhat incredulously, noting that’s if one of the women’s earlier statements to police is to be believed. Sanders said that even if there’s question as to who fired the shots, Sutton admitted he did in pleading guilty.
A security video of the scene captured the slaying. Craig, 42, is seen walking past the car in the alley outside his sister’s, where Sutton had driven his current girlfriend to continue her fight. As Craig passes the front passenger window, he suddenly falls, without any apparent interaction with the car’s occupants. Craig was shot twice, once in the head. Sanders sentenced Sutton to 13 years in prison, plus 10 on supervision, to begin when he completes a sentence he’s now serving for a 2012 conviction. He had been out on extended supervision when Craig was shot.