A Craighead County jury Friday sentenced a Blytheville man to life in prison plus 50 years in a New Year’s Day homicide at a Jonesboro barbershop, according to court documents.
Markus Gentry, 30, was convicted of second-degree murder. The jury sentenced Gentry to life in prison, enhanced by 10 years for use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, according to a news release by Scott Ellington, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ second Judicial District. The prosecutor said Circuit Judge Cindy Thyer added an additional 40 years imprisonment.
Gentry won’t be eligible for parole due to his criminal history, according to the release. Charged as a habitual offender, the man had four earlier violent felony convictions.
On Jan. 1, 2019, Jonesboro officers found 35-year-old Lewis C. Gamble suffering from gunshot wounds at Big Unk’s Barbershop, 1120 W. Huntington Ave. Gamble, who was from Jonesboro, was taken to a hospital where he later died.
Officers arrested Gentry that evening at a residence in south Jonesboro, reports state.
“A menace to society is off the streets and forever behind bars, where he belongs,” Ellington said in the release. “We are grateful that this jury decided that our community would not stand for his violent way of life and that we do not want him in our community any longer.”