A man who traveled from Texas to engage in sexual activity with a teenager has been sentenced to serve 25 years in prison. De’Airo DeShawn Bryant, 30, pled guilty on Tuesday, Sept. 26 to Electronic Solicitation of a Child. The victim was 15 at the time and had met Bryant on a social media instant messaging app. Bryant was 27 at the time of the offense.
24th Judicial Circuit District Attorney Andy Hamlin announced on Friday, Feb. 3 that Michael Steven Painter, 51, was sentenced to serve 30 years in prison for custodial sexual misconduct and use of official position or office for personal gain. The former probation officer was convicted after a jury trial held in Dec. 2022. Fayette County Circuit Court Judge Sam Junkin sentenced Painter to serve 20 years in prison for the misconduct conviction and 10 years for the ethics conviction. The sentences are to be served consecutively.
24th Judicial Circuit District Attorney Andy Hamlin announced on Monday, Feb. 6 that Mason Logan Martinez was sentenced to prison for two felony child pornography charges. Judge Sam Junkin sentenced Martinez, 21, to 20 years for dissemination of child pornography and 10 years for possession of child pornography. The sentences will run concurrently.
Lazaro Moran
District Attorney Andy Hamlin has announced prison sentences for two of five defendants involved in a 2018 double murder case in Fayette Co. Lazaro Moran, 35, of New Jersey, will serve two life sentences and Lindettia Lowery, 36, of Fairfield, will serve two concurrent 25-year sentences. Both pled guilty on Friday, Oct. 14 to murder in the shooting deaths of Hernan Antonio Padilla and Allen Clifford Sandlin.
A Fayette County Jail inmate who escaped work release custody in July has been sentenced to serve 20 years in custody. Daniel Wayne Beard, 36, escaped custody with the assistance of a woman who picked him up at Fayette County High School on July 12. Beard was among a group of inmates on work release who cleaned the school over summer break.
District Attorney Andy Hamlin announced on Friday, Nov. 6 that Blue Berry Hill was sentenced to serve life in prison for a 2019 murder in Fayette County. Hill, 19, of Cullman, was charged with murder in the 2019 shooting death of Joshua Devin Bush. Bush, 18, was found dead in the intersection of Sand Springs and Bly roads in rural Fayette County on Aug. 30, 2019. A passerby reported finding his body around 2:30 p.m., adding they had seen nothing when they drove through the same intersection two hours prior.
