Shon P. Byrd, accused in the 2014 shooting death of a World War II veteran, is escorted to the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office after his murder case ended in a mistrial Tuesday afternoon. 

A Meridian man on Thursday was sentenced to 49 years in prison on one count of armed robbery and three counts of credit card fraud.

Shon P. Byrd Jr., who was 19 when found guilty on Aug. 31, will serve 40 years for armed robbery and three years for each count of credit card fraud.

He was convicted for his role in a 2014 incident that ended in the shooting death of local World War II veteran Billy Putnam.

District Attorney Bilbo Mitchell said the maximum sentence for armed robbery is life, but the day-to-day sentence would mean no early release, and the nine years for credit card fraud will run consecutively with the 40-year sentence.

During the hearing, defense attorney John Helmert Jr., submitted a motion for a “judgment of acquittal” in spite of the jury’s verdict under U.S. Supreme Court case 431 U.S. 651.

The motion was denied, but Helmert said a public defender will appeal to a higher court on Byrd’s behalf.

“I do not think that any in judgment of acquittal should be ordered on any count…I do not think a dismissal should be entered on any count,” Circuit Court Judge Lester Williamson Jr. said.

The judge added that this case was “aggressively lawyered on both sides.”

“It’s pretty obvious that he believes his client… is not guilty and that a great injustice has been done here,” Williamson said. “The jury didn’t believe that — I don’t believe that.”

Putnam was killed in May 2014 while getting into his car in the parking lot of a local grocery store in the North Hills area.

Byrd, who was 16 at the time, was charged with capital murder along with the charges of armed robbery and credit card fraud.

A mistrial was declared in April due to a legal technicality.

Mitchell and Helmert Jr., said in a previous report that capital murder charges must be tried with an underlying crime such as armed robbery, rape or felony child abuse.

Byrd could only be convicted of armed robbery or capital murder, but not both.

After more than two hours of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked on Byrd’s capital murder charge.

Byrd cannot be tried again for capital murder, as double jeopardy protections in the 5th Amendment prohibit such an action.

Most of the prosecution’s case rested on co-defendants Veronica Ferguson and Decarlos Santez Clark. Both testified that they rode with Byrd that Sunday. According to their testimony, Byrd got out of the car, and the witnesses heard gunshots just before Byrd re-entered the car.

The GPS coordinates from Byrd’s ankle monitor placed him at Vowell’s for less than 10 minutes that Sunday, according to testimony from Al Moore, who monitors ankle bracelets for Lauderdale County.

The defense argued that Lyndell Pritchard committed the crimes, not Byrd. Pritchard, Clark’s brother, was Ferguson’s boyfriend and has a child with her.

However, prosecutors called a witness, Michelle Joiner, who monitors ankle bracelets for the City of Meridian, who testified that Pritchard’s bracelet showed he never left 42nd Street, where he and his mother both lived.

Helmert also argued the prosecution didn’t exclude the possibility that others had been in the car or that Byrd had been asleep in the backseat. He said it was possible someone else operating under Clark’s direction committed the crimes.

But Assistant District Attorney Philip Weinberg called this a “SODDI” defense, or “Some Other Dude Did It” defense.

The Putnam family didn’t wish to speak after the trial.

“It’s disappointing,” Putnam’s granddaughter Davida Hopkins said, declining to say more.

— Reporter Whitney Downard contributed to this report.