Man pleads guilty to manslaughter in 2016 stabbing death
Published 10:54 am Thursday, February 21, 2019
A northeast Mississippi man is pleading guilty to manslaughter in a 2016 death.
The Commercial Dispatch reports 43-year-old Barry Boozer on Tuesday admitted in Lowndes County Circuit Court that he stabbed Robert Elliott Thomas to death at a Columbus motel in November 2016.
Boozer originally was charged with second-degree murder.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison, with 12 more years suspended. He will also pay a $750 fine.
Prosecutors say Thomas visited Boozer and his wife in a hotel room and began arguing. Boozer then stabbed Thomas with a pocketknife.
Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Clemons says Boozer and his wife later pawned the pocketknife used in the fight.
Clemons says she believes the incident was drug-related.