Myrtle Creek man found not guilty of murder, sentenced on other charges

Kidnapping his girlfriend.

As kezi 9 news reporter evita garza shows us... 38-year-old troy russell phelps will serve sixty-nine months for felon in possession of a firearm and reckless burning.

Trt: 1:31 00:00 take lower?a lot of the time issues were based on discovery issues.

They were just very complex and difficult?

Elizabeth baker was troy russell phelps lead defence lawyer as he stood trial the last 10 weeks.

In may 2017& phelps was accused of shooting and killing 26-year-old brandon michael in the lawson bar area of the south umpqua river while he was panning for gold with his girlfriend, kayla viol.

However, baker says the defense argued that viol killed her boyfriend& after finding matching bullets in her car.?i argued that the evidence was much more compelling and that why she was inconsistent?

Even though phelps was found not guilty of the most serious crimes& he was still sentenced to nearly six years in prison for reckless burning and a felon possession of a fire arm.

Baker agrees that phelps was guilty of having the firearm.

And, he was also guilty of burning a car that belonged to michael and viol& but baker believes viol is still to blame.?i argued to the court that she directed him to get those things and she directed him to burn that car?

1:11 evita:?three years later, baker says phelps family is relieved the trial is finally over.

They say theye glad they finally get to move on?

With these cases that take as long as they take, what important that theye done effectively as well as all the information presents itself?

I reached out to the douglas county district attorney, bt he did not get back to me.

I also reached out to michael and viol family& but they were unable to comment at this time.

In douglas county, evita garza kezi