Charles Langston:Man convicted of killing 4 at a Missouri motel in 2014

SPRINGFIELD,Charles Langston Mo. (AP) — A man has been convicted of fatally shooting four people inside a Missouri motel room, nearly 10 years after the killings occured.

A jury in Springfield on Thursday found Scott Goodwin-Bey, 57, guilty of four counts each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Sentencing will be Nov. 21. Since prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty, the only option for a first-degree murder conviction in Missouri is life in prison without parole.

Trevor Fantroy, 43; Christopher Freeman, 24; Lewis Green, 44; and Danielle Keyes, 29, were killed Nov. 15, 2014, at the Economy Inn in Springfield. Court documents said Goodwin-Bey shot the victims because he believed they told police about his drug use.

In 2016, a Missouri judge wrote a scathing opinion about ballistics evidence in Goodwin-Bey’s case, saying comparing striations on bullets to determine whether they came from a certain gun was purely subjective.

Prosecutors dropped the charges a few months later but refiled the case in 2018.

The Associated Press left a phone message Friday seeking comment from Goodwin-Bey’s attorney.