BECKLEY, W.Va. — A Raleigh County jury convicted a Charleston Friday on a first-degree murder charge.
The 12-panel found Tremaine Lamar Jackson, 28, guilty in the May 6 death of Troy Lee Williams.
Jackson shot and killed Williams in the parking lot of Pet Supplies Plus in Beckley.
Evidence presented during this week’s trial included text messages between the two men showing they were planning a drug transaction. Evidence presented Thursday put Jackson in Beckley the night of the murder.
Jackson testified Thursday that he didn’t know Williams although other testimony earlier in the trial said the men had at one time been in jail together.
The jury convicted Jackson of first-degree murder with mercy meaning he’ll have a chance for parole in 15 years.
Jackson pleaded guilty in Kanawha County in 2017 to a voluntary manslaughter charge after killing Jackson County resident Bryan Rogers outside a convenience store on Charleston’s West Side in 2015. He cut the plea deal with prosecutors after two trials ended in separate mistrials.
Sentencing is set for March 26.