TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A 40-year-old Topeka man has pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for killings that happened a dozen years apart.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Monroe Eugene Lockhart III entered his pleas Thursday in the Jan. 3, 2012, fatal shooting of his business partner, 39-year-old Corey Brown, and the Feb. 14, 2000, shooting of 25-year-old Damon Anderson.
Deputy Shawnee County prosecutor Jacqie Spradling told a judge Thursday that Lockhart shot Brown twice in the head for disrespecting him by refusing to intervene on Lockhart’s behalf in a dispute with Brown’s father.
She says Lockhart shot Anderson because the victim owed him money and said he wasn’t going to pay it.
Spradling says she will seek to have Lockhart sentenced to at least 50 years in prison.