An Evansville man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit murder in a Warrick County slaying case.
Shawn M. Grigsby, 26, was one of four people charged in connection to the shooting death of 35-year-old Joseph Nelson, of Martinsville, Indiana, whose body was found Feb. 17 by employees at Alcoa’s Warrick Operations.
In addition to the time in prison, a Warrick County judge also ordered Grigsby pay almost $4,200 of Nelson’s funeral expenses.
Originally charged with murder, Grigsby faced a possible life without parole sentence had he been convicted of that charge at trial.
David J. Lackey Jr., 30, and Jade Stigall, 22, both of Boonville, Indiana, and Matthew McCallister, 31, of Indianapolis, are also charged with murder and conspiracy in the slaying.
Investigators believe the four met Nelson at a Fairfield Inn hotel in Evansville and then drove to a location in northern Warrick County. There, according to probable cause affidavits, Nelson was made to kneel with his hands behind his back near a railroad track and shot once in the head. His body was then believed to have been dumped into a coal car and later found in a coal-handling system at Alcoa’s generating plant.
Grigsby was on parole from prison for burglary and armed robbery at the time of Nelson’s slaying, released less than two months before the shooting, according to Indiana Department of Correction records.
