news-record.com

HIGH POINT (MCT) — A High Point man was sentenced to life in prison last week for his role in a fatal home-invasion robbery.

After a two-week trial, a jury on Friday convicted Floyd Calvin Cody of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Jermaine Quentine Collins on Dec. 18, 2007.

After deliberating for about 90 minutes, the jury also found Cody, 26, guilty of robbery with a firearm, first-degree burglary and kidnapping. The murder conviction carries an automatic life-without-parole sentence.

Prosecutors said Cody, along with Reco Terren Baskins and Christopher Nathaniel Little, broke into 511 Jeanette Ave. in a plan to rob Collins, 28, who lived at the residence with his girlfriend and son. Baskins allegedly shot Collins, and the perpetrators stole electronics and Christmas presents, prosecutors said. They fled in a white pickup truck driven by a fourth co-defendant, Emmanuel Charles Sellers, who later was caught running a red light by an off-duty police officer.

''The police department did a fine job. Within four or five hours, they had Sellers in custody and the case came together unbelievably well," said Guilford County Assistant District Attorney Don Carter, who prosecuted the case.

''Our office takes these kinds of cases very seriously. For the jury to be out for that short an amount of time just showed the strength of the case, I guess."

Carter said Baskins, 20, of High Point, testified against Cody, and has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, armed robbery, burglary and kidnapping charges, though he has not been sentenced. Cases are pending against Little, 20, of High Point, and Sellers, 24, of Thomasville.

Cody was arrested two days after the crime, while Little and Baskins were caught by U.S. marshals in Georgia on Jan. 16, 2008. All four men initially faced capital murder charges, but prosecutors elected not to seek the death penalty earlier this year.