A jury Wednesday found a Lincoln man guilty of shooting his then-girlfriend during a Halloween-night fight in 2019 as she sat in an SUV, rejecting a defense theory that the woman, a trouble-making ex who admittedly tried to bribe him, had made up the story.
The man on trial, Ryan Long, already is serving time for shooting and killing a man seven months later, though the jury wasn't told that information.
Last October, another Lancaster County jury in the same courtroom found the 31-year-old guilty of manslaughter and use of a firearm to commit a felony for the shooting death of Michael Whitemagpie in an alley near 33rd and T streets before sunrise May 23, 2020.
The state had argued it was first-degree murder. Long argued it was self-defense. The jury rejected both, ultimately finding him guilty of a killing without malice upon a sudden quarrel.
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A month later, Lancaster County District Court Judge Jodi Nelson sentenced him to 49 to 60 years in prison for it, plus another one to three years on a felony DUI charge.
In the latest trial, which started Monday, Long was accused of second-degree assault, use of a firearm to commit a felony and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Champaynne King, now 23, alleges that at about 4 a.m. Nov. 1, 2019, after being out Halloween night, she and Long got into an argument about his cellphone, which she'd taken.
He was outside the driver's side of a Nissan Pathfinder parked at 21st and Garfield streets. She was in the passenger seat, with Long's cousin in the driver's seat, when, she says, Long fired a gun with the bullet hitting her right thigh and going out the passenger side door.
King didn't report it for six weeks, at which point police documented her healing wounds and the hole in the Pathfinder.
In closing arguments Tuesday, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Ashley Bohnet said King wasn't the perfect victim.
"But no matter what her mistakes were, that's no justification for what Ryan Long did to her back on Nov. 1, 2019," she said.
King told the jury she didn't realize she'd been shot at first, it happened so quickly. The confrontation was over within 30 seconds.
After, King said, Long's cousin took her to a friend's to get her cleaned up, then took her to a hotel.
She also admitted she'd tried to bribe Long, telling him for $10,000 she could "make it go away," a fact Long's attorney, Nancy Peterson, pounced on in closing arguments.
"This is a woman you would not trust to walk your dog," the attorney said. "How can you trust this woman with the verdict?"
But perhaps the most damning evidence came in the form of texts sent four days after the shooting between Long's number and a number Long's cousin used where he called Long out for "blowing the hammer 2 inches from my face," after talking about taking care of her to make sure she didn't name any names.
At trial, Long took the stand against the advice of his attorney to tell the jury that while he is a convicted felon and did possess a firearm a month or two after the incident (thereby admitting one of the charges), he didn't do what the state alleges.
"I guess the bottom line, the question is, did you shoot Champaynne King?" Peterson asked him.
"No," Long said.
"Do you know how she got those injuries?" the attorney asked.
"I have no idea," he answered.
The case was submitted to the jury at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, which returned with guilty verdicts on all three charges midmorning Wednesday.
Long will face a minimum of eight years in prison and up to 120 on the charges at his sentencing in June.