Verdicts handed down
Published 12:00 pm Friday, November 13, 2015
An Oxford man will spend 10 years in prison for armed robbery after being sentenced last month during the October court term.
Jessie B. Owens, 22, 66 County Road 405, was arrested by Lafayette County sheriff’s investigators in April along with Demarquis Gibson, 21, also of Oxford, for robbing two people inside a home in the Brittany Woods subdivision by gunpoint.
Owens pleaded guilty on Oct. 29 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison; however, the judge suspended 20 years, leaving Owens to serve at least 10 years. If, after being released, he violates his parole, he could be sent back to prison to complete the remainder of the 30-year sentence.
Gibson is still awaiting trial.
Another court case settled involves at least one of four arrested during a drug bust in April.
Jeffrey Lawson Factor, 21, of Nashville, Tennessee, was sentenced to 15 years in prison with five of those years suspended during the October court term, on several drug related charges including sale of a controlled substance, conspiracy and possessing a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
Factor was arrested in April with three others — Collin Michael Bishop, who was sentenced in July to five years in prison, Madison White and Shelbie Yates, after Lafayette County Metro Narcotics officers seized 1,114 dosage units of alleged Xanax, two grams of alleged marijuana, five grams of synthetic marijuana, $3,744 in cash, two iPhones, one Apple Macbook Pro and a 2010 Nissan Xterra.
Bishop, White and Yates were students at the University of Mississippi at the time of their arrests, and Factor was a former student.
White and Yates are still awaiting trial.
For more cases settled in the October court term, see Page 9A.