KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Shawnee man was sentenced Tuesday to 45 years in prison for the murder of an unarmed man in Platte County.
In March, Coty Borst, 28, was found guilty of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the deadly shooting that occurred on June 21, 2018.
According to prosecutors, Borst shot Jacob Stowers, 24, in the back at a Houston Lake home and hid from police in a nearby creek.
At his trial, where he testified in his own defense, Borst said they had an argument and he feared Stowers would get a gun, though Borst said he never saw the victim with a weapon.
“This was a senseless murder of a defenseless man,” Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said in a news release. “The defendant shot an unarmed man merely as the result of an argument.”
Judge James Van Amburg sentenced Borst to 30 years in prison for the murder charge and 15 years for the armed criminal action charge, ordering the sentences to run consecutively.
Borst will be eligible for parole after 28-and-a-half years, according to prosecutors.
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