Man gets 40 to life for California church shooting

[No More Sorrow]

MARTINEZ, Calif. (AP) - A California man who shot two people inside a church last year has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.

Despite pleas from the family of 20-year-old Marcel Buggs for leniency, a judge handed down the sentence Friday during an emotional hearing.

Buggs of Richmond was convicted in July of three counts of attempted murder, commercial burglary and gang charges for a Valentine's Day 2010 shooting at New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ in Richmond.

During the trial, prosecutors told jurors that Buggs shot and wounded two brothers inside the church but had intended to hit the brothers' older sibling, who was in a rival gang.

The Contra Costa Times reports that during Friday's sentencing, Buggs sobbed as his mother, Stacey Porter, told the judge that her son suffered from mental illness.

 

[Killswitch]

You would assume actions like this would warrant a jury to say life without parole since his motive was to murder / burglary, and especially in a Church? Come on I know everyone is not entitled in believing in God but come on bro you must have some morals and respect. If you have a beef do it in a place where it's appropriate not right in the house of Jesus Christ.

 

[Troy]

He should have gotten life because he went there with the intention to kill and in the process seriously injured two people. I hate that the mother was trying to excuse it by saying he has a mental illness, that doesn't change anything except possibly give more reason that they should be kept away from society for even longer.