Jurors spare life of man convicted in witness slaying

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man convicted of killing a witness to keep him from testifying about a robbery faces life in prison.

Carl Haskell, 24, formerly of Kansas City, Kan., was convicted last week of murder in the death of John Wayne Hogsett, 33.

He also was convicted of conspiring to kill Hogsett.

A federal jury's decision Friday not to impose the death penalty means Haskell, who was paid for the killing, will be sentenced to life in prison.

Haskell's co-defendant, Curtis Barfield, 38, was acquitted of murdering Hogsett but was convicted of conspiring to murder a federal witness.

He faces up to five years in prison.

Federal prosecutors argued that the killing was ordered by Cornelius Peoples, 28, and Xavier Lightfoot, 39, to keep Hogsett from testifying against Lightfoot in the Nov. 28, 1997, robbery of the Educator's Federal Credit Union in Omaha, Neb.

Hogsett, who lived as a woman and went by the name Jovan Ross, was shot to death in June 1998 in the Kansas City home he shared with Lightfoot.