Springfield man gets consecutive life sentences for 2 murders in 5 days

A Springfield man will almost certainly spend the rest of his life behind bars after he was convicted of murdering two people in a five-day span.

Willie Haughton, 27, was sentenced Thursday to consecutive life sentences for the 2018 murders of Lance Loveless and Robert Hewitt.

The life sentences handed down by Judge David Jones are to be served without the possibility of parole.

A Greene County jury found Haughton guilty in December of two counts of first-degree murder and several other felonies in connection with the deadly crime spree in the spring of 2018.

Prosecutors say Haughton killed Loveless in order to steal his gun on March 27, 2018, and then Haughton used that stolen gun to kill Hewitt five days later after he possibly felt Hewitt had disrespected his friend.

From 2018:'I wish we never bonded him out,' agent says of Springfield homicide suspect

Once police identified Haughton as a suspect in both homicides, he was the subject of a days-long manhunt in April 2018 before finally being arrested at a home in Greene County.

Police were helped in their investigation by GPS tracking data, since Haughton was on bond in a different case when he carried out the murders.

The state's other evidence included accounts from witnesses and the discovery of both murder weapons. Prosecutors also played audio of a call Haughton made from the jail to one of his associates after the murders where he said the state had too much evidence against him and surveillance footage where he told a jail deputy that he had "two bodies" on him.

Loveless, 30, and Hewitt, 49, were both found shot to death in their cars.

Online court records indicate Haughton's attorney asked the judge Thursday for a new trial, but that request was denied.

From 2018:Police arrest man wanted for 2 homicides early Friday morning