BEAUMONT, Texas — A Jefferson County has sentenced a Port Arthur man to 60 years in prison for the 2020 murder of a 35-year-old father.
On Thursday morning jurors found Larnell Mosley, of Port Arthur, guilty of fatally shooting Jose Ray Riojas in January of 2020.
He will be credited for any time he has already spent in jail and does have the right to appeal his conviction.
He had faced from five to 99 in years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. Mosley won't be eligible for parole until he has served at least 30 years or half his sentence.
Mosley and another man, Jeremy Roy, were both charged with Ray's death. Roy has not yet gone to trial.
Closing arguments began at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday and by 10:15 a.m. the jury had been given the case for deliberation. By 11:10 a.m. a guilty verdict had been announced.
Testimony in the trial began on Tuesday.
The trial had been set for September 2021, but Judge Raquel West postponed it due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases at that time.
Prosecutor Phillip Smith told jurors during his closing arguments that the only thing he had to do was prove that Mosley had fatally shot Riojas.
"It's almost too easy," Smith said. "I wish I had this much evidence in every trial."
He urged the jury not to go to "Hollywood thinking" and look for a "twist."
"We know who did it, and you know who did it," he told the jury.
In the defense's closing arguments, attorney James Makin, said jurors must decide if the state had proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Mosley had committed the murder.
"I think one of the first things you need to decide... Was Mr. Mosely even there," Makin said. "Did they prove that beyond a reasonable doubt? And if he was there, did he shoot Mr. Riojas?"
Makin went on to suggest that detectives had lied to Mosley during hours of questioning to get him to confess.
"How many hours do you need to be held in a small room with people who have guns and who lied to you before you caved in?" he asked the jury.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.