Eagle Grove resident Michael James Shivers, 57, has been sentenced in Webster County to over 70 years in prison on two counts of second degree murder in the deaths of Jamal Cox and Tyrone Cunningham.
Four men besides Shivers, James Davis Jr., Darryll Jones, Jeremiah Hatten, and Michael Wells, were originally charged in the killings as well, however the Webster County Attorney's office dropped the charges against all but Shivers, concluding that they could not prove their cases against the other four men beyond a reasonable doubt.
Shivers had rejected a plea agreement offered by prosecutors, which would have seen him spend under 5 years in prison. Despite the warning to Shivers from District Court Judge James McGlynn, who presided over the case, that refusing the plea deal "could put you in prison for the rest of your life." Shivers, apparently intent on asserting his innocence, rejected the deal.
Even after rejecting the plea deal, Shivers could have received as little as seventeen and a half years in prison, but instead received the maximum sentence of a full century in prison, 50 years on each count. He must serve 70% of that sentence, or at least 70 years. Meaning there is little chance, outside of overturning his conviction or receiving a pardon, that Shivers will ever again be a free man. Shivers was also ordered to pay $150,000 restitution to the heirs or estates of his victims.
