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Man sentenced to prison for Des Moines shooting death

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March 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for a 2019 shooting that killed one man and injured another in a commercial district north of I-235 in Des Moines. Television station KCCI reports that Michael Lyke Jr. was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years on each of three counts in the case. He was ordered to serve the sentences one after the other. In February, Lyke pleaded guilty to reduced charges of voluntary manslaughter, willful injury and a weapons count in the June 2019 killing of 41-year-old Earl Caldwell.

Another man, 39-year-old Des Moines resident Littleton William Clark, was injured. Lyke had been scheduled to go to trial in April on more serious charges and would have received a mandatory life sentence if convicted.