STARKVILLE — Steven D. Love will spend 15 years in prison for the beating death of a Maben man in November 2009.
Love, 28, of Maben, accepted the 16th District Attorney’s Office’s plea deal Tuesday during the fall term of Oktibbeha County Circuit Court and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of 68-year-old William C. Brown. Brown died from blunt force trauma to the head and was found by neighbors in his Self Creek Road home two days after he died.
Love was charged with murder in August 2010 and faced life in prison. At the time of his indictment, Love was serving a prison term for a burglary conviction in Webster County and was not eligible for bond.
Love received a 20-year sentence, with five years suspended and five years of post-release supervision. Love’s sentence will run consecutively with the burglary sentence he’s currently serving in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
No signs of forced entry were found inside Brown’s home. Love became a suspect in summer 2010, nearly seven months after Brown’s death.
In other news, Jason Judion, of 3208 County Line Road, pleaded guilty to selling cocaine less than two grams. Judion received an eight-year sentence in the MDOC with no chance of parole or a reduced sentence. Judion was on post-release supervision at the time of his arrest. Judge Jim Kitchens tacked on five more years because Judion had prior convictions for the sale of propoxyphene and grand larceny.
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