Joplin man sentenced in Kansas man's death
Published on -10/4/2012, 7:49 AM
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GIRARD, Kan. (AP) -- A Missouri man was sentenced to nearly 27 years in prison for killing a Kansas man during a botched robbery attempt.
Twenty-three-year-old Rickey R. Smith was sentenced Wednesday to 26 years and 10 months in prison for second-degree murder in the shooting death of 21-year-old Ryan Bailey in October 2011.
Smith was one of four Joplin men charged in Bailey's death. In a plea deal in January, Smith admitted that he shot Bailey during an attempted robbery at Bailey's home in Pittsburg.
Oscar C. DeLeon Jr. and Randu Rivera, both 19, pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder and were each sentenced to 14 years and four months in prison.
The Joplin Globe reports (http://bit.ly/QuR1Bt ) the fourth defendant, Nathan D. Whitney, is being held in Missouri in a different case.
