NATCHEZ, Miss. (WJTV) – A man has been sentenced in connection to a fatal shooting that occurred in Natchez two years ago.

The Natchez Democrat reported Michael Thomas was sentenced on Wednesday, June 26 to 40 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He pled guilty to second-degree homicide in the shooting death of Johnny Ricardo Mason.

The shooting happened near the Holiday Apartments in Natchez on January 4, 2022. Natchez police said Mason identified Thomas as the shooter before he died at Merit Health Natchez.

Thomas later turned himself in to authorities in connection to the fatal shooting.