By Billy Davis
A 19-year-old has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to kill another young man in Crenshaw.

Damion Stokes was sentenced September 6 in Batesville following an August 7 jury conviction for conspiring to kill Ira Phillips, 20, in an alleged dispute over narcotics in March 2011.

The 10-year sentence will run consecutively with a previous conviction for armed robbery, local authorities said.

State prosecutors alleged Stokes was involved in a plan to punish Phillips because he owed money to reputed drug dealer Vincent Ruffin, also of Crenshaw.

An autopsy showed Phillips was shot six times. The admitted triggerman, Gary Dantzson, testified that Stokes handed him a Tec-9 handgun and told him Ruffin expected him to “handle this.”

After two hours of deliberation jurors found Stokes guilty of conspiracy but not guilty of murder.

Circuit Judge Jimmy McClure, who presided over the trial, sentenced Stokes last week. Stokes could have received as much as 20 years in prison for the conspiracy conviction.  

Stokes was convicted of robbing a Crenshaw grocery store when he was 14. He had served three years in prison, and was on supervised probation, when he was arrested and charged last March.

McClure had revoked Stokes’ probation prior to the August trial.