On Tuesday of last week there were sentencing hearings on two defendants. The two were Eric Harris and Joshua Edwards. Eric Harris was sentenced for the Second-degree murder of his brother in June of 2013. Mr. Edwards was sentenced as a result of convictions in two separate back-to-back jury trials that arose out of a single arrest in December of 2013.

Eric Harris, 49, claimed he was acting in self-defense when he shot his younger brother Larch during a scuffle that escalated from an argument over a saddle. He was armed with a sawed-off shotgun and Larch was unarmed.

During the sentencing hearing, Judge Monasmith heard victim’s impact statements from surviving members of Larch’s family and from the state asking for the maximum sentence and from Eric’s daughter and his defense attorney asking for a reduced sentence and finally from Eric Harris. Mr. Harris said he was sorry about shooting his brother, but also said words to the effect that the length of the sentence did not matter very much to him.

At the conclusion, Judge Monasmith talked about the fact that the jury had considered self-defense and specifically rejected it, and had also rejected conviction on First Degree murder. He also talked about how this tragedy had impacted two families and the effects would likely continue to impact the surviving family members. He then sentenced Mr. Harris to 264 months in prison and Mr. Harris gave notice of appeal of the trial and sentence.

Joshua Edwards was arrested following a traffic stop last December. In the first trial, he was convicted of illegally possessing a firearm and other charges when a small derringer and metal knuckles were found in his pocket during a search. He had first given a false name, but when he finally gave his correct name it was discovered he had active warrants and was arrested.

In the second trial, he was convicted of possessing drugs in the jail when pills were discovered sometime after his arrest. He had apparently been able to hide them within his body when he was first searched after his arrest.

He had two trials because he had successfully argued in a pretrial motion that allowing one jury to hear both cases was too prejudicial to and that he should have separate juries determine his guilt or innocence on the charges. The court had agreed and severed the charges into two separate trials.

Judge Monasmith gave him 50 months in prison and he also appealed.