Oregon prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a man convicted of killing a former Lawrence man almost a year ago.
Joshua Copp, 25, was killed during what Lane County prosecutors called a "drug-related" robbery that occurred March 10 in Eugene, Ore. One of four people charged in the case was convicted Monday of eight counts, including charges of murder that carry the possible sentence of death, Lane County Deputy Dist. Atty. Kent Mortimore said Tuesday.
Travis Lee Gibson, 24, of Eugene, was convicted Monday after a two-week trial. A jury found him guilty of two counts of aggravated murder which are capital offenses along with one count each of murder, attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Gibson killed Copp, prosecutors successfully contended, during an early-morning robbery at Copp's apartment. Gibson, along with three others, were charged with attacking Copp and his roommate, shooting both.
Mortimore said Gibson's sentencing hearing would begin this week. Gibson faces three possible sentences death, life in prison without possibility for parole and life with the possibility of parole in 30 years.
Mortimore declined to comment whether prosecutors planned to also pursue the death penalty against the remaining two defendants, Melvin Deon Givens and Wendy Leanne Gates.
Don and Christine Copp, Joshua's parents, attended the trial and said they felt relieved about the verdict but that they hadn't formed opinions about possible death for Gibson.
"I'm not sure what would be worse for him," Don Copp said from his hotel in Eugene. "Whether to see him suffer his entire life in jail or to put him to death. Because nothing will change what happened."
Don Copp also argued the implication that the shooting resulted because his son was mixed up in drugs.
"They (defendants) assumed he had drugs," he said. "They misjudged their target, and that's why it turned violent."
Copp's roommate received critical wounds but survived. Authorities arrested the four suspects later in Portland, Ore., and Reno, Nev.
One of the other defendants in the case James Wesley Herlong, 18 previously pleaded guilty to one count each of murder, assault, robbery and burglary. He won't face the death penalty, Mortimore said.
Copp was a 1992 graduate of Lawrence High School. He grew up in Lawrence and had been working for a frozen meat company in Eugene.
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