Man Sentenced to 10 Years After Killing Stepfather Over Yard Work

The Prince George's County man who killed his stepfather, a D.C. detective, over yard work has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

Antwan James was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison, including time served. He will be eligible for parole in about two years, News4's Kristin Wright reports. 

James was found guilty of fatally shooting his stepfather, Metropolitan Police Department detective Joseph Newell, 18 times outside the family's home in Upper Marlboro, Maryland on April 22, 2013. The entire shooting was caught on surveillance video.

During his trial, James' mother, Bernadette Newell, testified that her husband asked his three stepsons for help outside their home in a gated community on the 6700 block of Green Moss Drive. James, then 27, refused, and his mother told him if he didn't help, he had to leave.

"He jumped up and said, 'You're doing it because of him,' and said, 'Watch this,' and he was out the door," she said.

Moments later, she heard a hail of gunfire. After Newell, 46, fell to the ground, James stood over him and fired four more rounds into his body. 

A memorial to Newell was installed last year at the new office of Washington, D.C.'s Sixth District detectives, the investigators Newell worked with for 24 years.

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