Shockley gets death sentence in shooting of trooper

VAN BUREN, Mo. -- After denying a Carter County man's request for a new trial Friday afternoon, a judge sentenced him to death for gunning down a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper.

Lance D. Shockley, 32, of Van Buren showed little emotion as Presiding Circuit Judge David Evans sentenced him to death for the murder of Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr.

Just moments earlier, assistant attorney general Kevin Zoellner had urged Evans to sentence Shockley to death.

"I know it's a tough decision," Zoellner said. "... We feel it is the appropriate sentence."

Bradford Kessler, one of Shockley's attorneys, said an appeal is planned. But Kessler said he believed the judge made the ruling he thought was appropriate.

"He struck me as a fair man who searched his conscience for what he thought the right decision ought to be," Kessler said.

Shockley took the decision "stoically," Kessler said.

A Carter County jury had found Shockley guilty of first-degree murder in March following a weeklong trial in West Plains, Mo., where the trial was moved on a change of venue.

A 12-year veteran of the patrol, Graham had just arrived home after completing his shift when he was killed March 20, 2005. Prosecutors said Graham was killed because he was focusing on Shockley in the investigation of a fatal accident.

After hearing evidence in the penalty phase of the trial, the jury was unable to agree on whether Shockley should be sentenced to death or to life imprisonment. Because the jury found the statutory aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances, officials said, the judge was allowed to consider both punishments when he sentenced Shockley.

Capt. Billy E. Chadwick, commander of the troop where Graham worked, said the sentence was fair.

"We feel that justice has been done in this matter and that an appropriate sentence has been imposed," Chadwick said in a written statement. "We pray that today's judgment will bring at least a small measure of closure for Dewayne's family, friends, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and the numerous law enforcement agencies who assisted us during this entire process."

Graham's father, Carl Graham Sr., said, "We are elated over this decision and perhaps our family can finally find some closure."

The Dexter Daily Statesman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.