Morgan Absher

They said Michael actually had no idea that she was planning on killing Ben and that he was just looking to help an ex out of an abusive partnership.

According to Michael's lawyers, Michael was so convinced by Lindley's claims that he gave her a gun, which he delivered to the spa in case she needed it for self-defense.

When Michael went to the farm with Lindley, his lawyer said that he thought they were there to pick up her kids and to tell Ben that she was leaving him.

But Lindley instead whipped out the gun and shot Ben.

Michael was so shocked by this, he ran out of the door.

And meanwhile, the prosecution leaned heavily on Brandon Blackwell's statement that Michael had agreed to help kill Ben, but backed out on the day of the murder, which forced Lindley to shoot him herself.

Under Missouri law, helping someone commit murder will get you charged with murder, even if you don't do the killing yourself.

So if the jury believed the prosecution's version of events, Michael would be found guilty, even if Lindley was the one that pulled the trigger.

Both the prosecution and the defense rested their cases after just two days.

That was on October 20th, 2021.

And a few hours later, kind of because of everything I just said, but the jury delivered a guilty verdict.

Even if it wasn't him pulling the trigger, he was guilty of murder.

It's the law.

In Missouri, a first-degree murder conviction means an automatic sentence of either capital punishment or life without parole.

But Michael's sentencing didn't happen right away because prosecutors had another idea.

After Michael's first degree murder conviction, prosecutors saw an opportunity to shore up their case for Lindley's trial.

They were never going to offer Michael immunity, but they wanted his testimony against Lindley.

So they make him this offer.

They say if you cooperate in Lindley's case, they could use their special post-conviction pre-sentencing legal maneuver to reduce his conviction to second degree murder.

He was basically going to go to prison no matter what, but a second degree conviction at least gave him a shot at parole.