Man Gets 40-To-Life For Deadly Church Shooting

MARTINEZ (AP) - A 20-year-old Richmond man who shot two people inside a church last year has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.

Despite pleas from the family of Marcel Buggs for leniency, the judge in the case handed down the sentence during an emotional hearing Friday.

Buggs was convicted in July of three counts of attempted murder, commercial burglary and gang charges for a Valentine's Day 2010 shooting at the New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ in Richmond.

During the trial, prosecutors told jurors that Buggs shot and wounded two brothers inside the church, but had intended to hit the brothers' older sibling, who was in a rival gang.

The Contra Costa Times reports that during Friday's sentencing, Buggs sobbed as his mother, Stacey Porter, told the judge that her son suffered from mental illness.

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