COURTLAND—Tuesday’s scheduled sentencing for a convicted murderer from Newsoms was delayed until 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 5, in Southampton County Circuit Court.

In September, it took a jury 40 minutes to find Troy Mayfield guilty of pre-mediated murder for the March 3, 2009, shooting death of Brandon Keith Turner, 20, at a Courtland apartment complex on Oak Trail.

After convicting Mayfield of first-degree murder, the jury recommend life in prison for the 29-year-old. It would be up to a judge to impose that or any other sentence.

Mayfield’s half-brother, Eric Parker, had been charged with shooting Turner in 2008 at the same apartment complex. Police claim Mayfield shot Turner to keep him from testifying against Parker for the earlier shooting.

During his trial, Mayfield testified he was living in Newport News and wasn’t in Courtland on the night of the shooting.

Michael Rosenberg, Mayfield’s court-appointed attorney, said the case against his client was reliant upon the testimony of inmate witnesses, who were looking for a break.

Rosenberg claimed Turner had an argument with another man at the apartment complex on the night of the murder and insisted his client didn’t go to Newport News to hide out after the shooting, as one witness testified.

Parker, 21, was sentenced to 23 years for his role in the murder. He was recently charged with the nearly four-year-old murder of Courtney Blunt, 26, at Southampton Meadows Mobile Home Park.

Police were called at about midnight on April 20, 2007, and found Blunt, who was shot at his home in the 31000 block of George Street. It’s believed that Parker allegedly shot Blunt while trying to rob him, police said.

Parker is at Buckingham Correctional Facility in Dillwyn.