A one-time local wrestling coach was sentenced Monday to 40 years in prison in the shooting death of another man.
A San Diego county jury convicted Jeret Needham of murder. His defense attorney had argued the shooting was self-defense, but prosecutors persuaded jurors it was a revenge killing.
Needham surrendered to police last September on the day officers found the victim’s body in the backyard of a home on Denver Street in Bay Park.
He was charged with shooting Robert Colgrove, 45, in connection to an argument that apparently arose over a woman.
“My client, Mr. Needham, was getting off the couch. His hand went back and accidentally made some contact with the female’s body purely by accident,” the victim’s attorney, Kerry Armstrong, said last fall. “At the time, there was very little discussion about it. He said he was sorry, and she said, ‘no problem.’”
Friends of the victim attended Monday’s sentencing to show their support of the victim whom some of them said was painted in a negative light.
“Mostly I’m just glad that it’s over,” said friend Don Garriott. “There was a bad decision that day by both man to engage in an altercation.”
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"Robert Colegrove was the love of my life. We loved each other very much and he's not here now to tell anybody,” echoed Colegrove’s girlfriend, Tara Jones. “To say he loves you or hug you or kiss you or say anything. Robert was a wonderful individual."
As part of the sentence, Needham also must pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines and court fees.
