Man gets 7 years for Taste killing

A suspect accused of killing a man New Year's Day at a Cape Girardeau after-hours club accepted a negotiated guilty plea Monday and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Samuel Milton Houston, 21, of Thebes, Ill., was scheduled to be tried for second-degree murder Aug. 19 and 20. Instead, he pleaded guilty to involuntary man-slaughter in the death of Anton Shamon Miller, 25, of Cape Girar-deau. Houston, who had no prior criminal convictions, waived a presentence investigation and received the maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

"I pray that the Lord will forgive me for what I did and that his family will forgive me for what I did," Houston told Judge John P. Heisserer. "I am truly apologetic."

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle told Heisserer the state's witnesses confirmed that Miller had been the first one to pull a gun. He pulled it on Houston's brother, Shamir Houston, outside the Taste in the early hours of New Year's Day. Bystanders took the gun away from Miller after he fired a shot. Miller then knocked Shamir Houston to the ground and began punching him, witnesses said.

Samuel Houston came up behind Miller and shot him three times in the back as Miller was punching Shamir Houston, according to witnesses.

By pleading guilty, Samuel Houston admitted he had been reckless in using excessive and unreasonable force in trying to defend his bother.

"Under Missouri law," Swingle said, "a person may use deadly force in defense of another person only to the extent he reasonably believes it is necessary to defend a person from death or serious physical injury."

Swingle said that in this instance, Houston was justified in using physical force to get Miller away from his brother, but the use of deadly force was excessive.

Shamir Houston, who was on parole at the time, also was charged in the Taste incident for unlawful use of a weapon. His parole was revoked, and he is in state custody facing pending federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

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