A man accused of murder in 2023 was acquitted of the charge in Lee County Superior Court this week, but found guilty of concealment of death.
Lee County sheriff’s deputies had charged Jackie Lamar Bright, 45, with first degree murder in connection with the death of Michael Cox, whose body authorities found inside a 55-gallon drum in a wooded area near Bright’s home on Farrell Road. Cox’s body had been dismembered and the barrel filled with concrete, authorities said at the time.
Jury selection in the case began on May 11; the verdict came back on Tuesday.
Judge Jessica Locklear sentenced Bright to between 10 and 14 years in prison. Concealment of death is a class D felony.
Bright was arrested in February 2023, but court documents show the date of Cox’s death as December 25, 2022.
Bright’s attorney, Fred Webb of Sanford, told The Rant that DNA evidence in the case – found on a concrete bucket and on one spent and one unspent shell casing – was not a match for Bright. Webb said the defense did not present a case because there was “no evidence linking (Bright) to the death.”