Two get life sentence for attempted murder of deputy shot seven times

Two men convicted of trying to kill a sheriff’s deputy in Kansas City, Kan., last year were sentenced Thursday to life in prison.

Cecil Meggerson, 36, and Dyron King, 25, will have to serve 25 years before becoming eligible for parole. A Wyandotte County District Court judge also sentenced each of them to an additional 37 years and five months in prison on other convictions in the case.

In February, a Wyandotte County jury found the Kansas City, Kan., men guilty of attempted capital murder in the shooting of Scott Wood.

The deputy was inside a convenience store on March 4, 2015, when three armed robbers burst in and forced him to the floor at gunpoint.

After stealing money, the robbers shot Wood while he was facedown on the floor. He survived seven gunshot wounds.

On Thursday, Wood asked the judge to impose the maximum possible sentences.

“They knew right from wrong,” Wood said. “They chose to do wrong.”

The deputy’s first inkling that something was wrong in the store came when he turned around and found himself “looking down the barrel of a gun pointed right at my face.”

He described it “as the most horrifying event I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

Wood said that as he felt the “unimaginable” pain of feeling bullet after bullet tear into his body, he saw his blood pooling beneath him and he prayed.

“Please Jesus, stay with me. Don’t leave me alone,” Wood said of his last thoughts before losing consciousness.

He spent more than two weeks in the hospital. Every day since then, the scars in his body have served as a reminder “of what these men tried to take away from me.”

That robbery was the last in a series of holdups in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., according to testimony in the trial of Meggerson and King.

Besides the attempted capital murder charge, Meggerson and King were found guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, three counts of aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated battery. Both also were convicted of being felons in possession of firearms.

Meggerson and King both declined to speak before sentencing in separate hearings Thursday.

James Spies, attorney for Meggerson, said his client maintains his innocence.

“Mr. Meggerson says he did not commit these crimes,” Spies said.

King’s attorney, Debera Erickson, said she instructed him not to make a statement because she intends to appeal.

Under Kansas law, the life sentences for attempted capital murder were mandatory. But both defense attorneys asked that the other sentences be run concurrently with that term.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Kristiane Bryant asked the judge to impose maximum, consecutive sentences.

Bryant said maximum sentences were warranted because of the “pattern of extreme violence” exhibited during all the crimes, in which victims were pistol-whipped or shots were fired at them.

District Judge Dexter Burdette agreed.

He sentenced both defendants to the maximum sentences for each crime. He ordered that each of the sentences, including the life sentence, run consecutively.

He imposed the sentences consecutively because each robbery victim deserved justice for what he endured, Burdette said.

“Frankly, it’s a miracle that no one was killed,” the judge said.

A third man charged in the case, 19-year-old Charles Bowser, is scheduled to go to trial next month.

As for Wood, he said he intends to continue working as a deputy to protect people from the kind of evil that nearly took his life.

“I will continue to move forward,” he said.

None of the victims in the series of robberies could identify the three robbers because the men wore masks and gloves, according to trial testimony.

But at the scene of a Kansas City robbery the night before Wood was shot, investigators found a pack of cigarettes bearing King’s fingerprint.

When they went to King’s house in Kansas City, Kan., both Meggerson and Bowser were there.

A revolver found on King’s bed inside the house had the deputy’s DNA on it, and a pair of boots found nearby had the DNA of a Kansas City robbery victim who had been pistol-whipped.

Unopened liquor bottles — the kind taken in one of the Kansas City robberies and shown on surveillance — also were found in the house.

A search of Meggerson’s cellphone showed him posing with a liquor bottle. The photo reportedly was taken right after the robbery involving the liquor.

Outside the house, Bowser’s car was parked in the driveway, and King’s DNA was found on a glove inside the car. The glove matched the gloves worn by one of the robbers. Gloves containing the DNA of Bowser and Meggerson also were found.

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 9:56 AM with the headline "Two get life sentence for attempted murder of deputy shot seven times."