A Columbia man who admits shooting his stepfather to death in 2022 will learn his fate this morning at the Boone County Courthouse.
Judge Joshua Calvin Devine has scheduled a 9 am sentencing hearing for 23-year-old Samuel Brotherton, who pleaded guilty in August to second degree murder and armed criminal action for discharging a weapon while intoxicated.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed the amended charges against Brotherton in August, from first to second degree murder. The attorney general says he consulted with victim Rollin Thompson’s family and with Boone County prosecutors. General Bailey says Brotherton killed his stepfather after a March 2022 argument at a home on Columbia’s Pinecrest drive, near Blue Ridge elementary school.
Bailey says the 64-year-old Thompson, who was unarmed, was shot while hiding behind a closed, locked bedroom door. The attorney general says his office is committed to obtaining justice for victims of heinous crimes.
The primary difference between first and second degree murder in Missouri is that those convicted of second degree murder are eligible for parole after serving 85 percent of their sentence. Those convicted of first degree murder are not eligible for parole.
