Augusta Circuit District Attorney Jared Williams announced guilty verdicts in two trials for gun crimes held this week.
Vinshune Showers, 33, was found guilty of aggravated assault and gun possession for firing a gun in the air and at another person on March 18, 2022.
“The district attorney’s office has a message for any hotheads in our community: If you’re willing to kill for ‘respect,’ be willing to go to prison for it, too,” Williams said in a statement.
A grandmother, her granddaughters and her 10-month-old great-granddaughter were in their home when shots rang out. Showers was in an unrelated verbal argument with an unknown male he shot at, and another unknown male shot him in the ankle and leg. Bullets lodged in the residence of the victims.
“We all deserve to feel safe in our own homes,” Assistant District Attorney Stetson Cromer said in closing arguments. “The victims had nothing to do with the foolishness in the street. This is how innocent people get killed,” Cromer said.
Richmond County Superior Court Judge Ashley Wright sentenced Showers to 20 years in prison, followed by 10 years on probation.
In the other guilty verdict, a jury found Alan Wilson, 31, guilty of possessing a Glock 17 9mm handgun.
Wilson was the passenger in a vehicle parked on Prague Court June 15, 2022, when police responded to shots being fired. They observed him attempt to conceal the gun with a bag and found two weapons in the car.
While the driver claimed the weapons, Assistant District Attorney Kyle Davis discovered the Glock was Wilson’s gun, and that he was on probation for robbery by intimidation in 2008.
“Every day we hear of gun violence and how people need to held accountable. You have the opportunity right now to hold someone accountable,” Davis told the jury.
Richmond County Superior Court Judge John Flythe sentenced Wilson to 10 years in prison.
