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Key Murder Trial Witness Sentenced

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By HERNANDO TODAY STAFF

Published: June 11, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - A key witness in the murder trial of James Ray Booth received a combined five years in prison for four cases on Wednesday.

Thor Richmond made an open plea to the narcotics charges against him on Wednesday, including a cocaine trafficking charge that carried a minimum mandatory three-year sentence.

Keeping in line with prior practice, Circuit Judge Jack Springstead gave Richmond the lowest sentence possible because Richmond made an open plea. That amounted to about 5 1/2 years in prison.

In the murder trial, Richmond testified how he struggled to rip a gun away from Booth in October, 2006. The gun went off five times and one of the stray bullets killed the owner of the house they were fighting in, Kenneth LaPointe Sr.

When asked on the stand about charges pending against him, Richmond claimed he was a victim of circumstance and turned away from a life of drugs.

Booth received two consecutive life sentences last week after a jury found him guilty of third-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm.

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