SIOUX CITY — A Sioux City teenager awaiting sentencing for murder was sentenced last week to five years in prison for possession of marijuana.
Dwight Evans, 18, on Wednesday entered a written plea of guilty to possession with the intent to deliver marijuana. Senior Judge Jeffrey Poulson ordered the prison term to be served concurrently, or at the same time, with his pending sentence for murder.
A Woodbury County jury on Aug. 4 found Evans guilty of first-degree murder and going armed with intent for the May 1, 2021, shooting death of Martez Harrison outside Uncle Dave’s Bar in Sioux City.
Evans faces life in prison for murder and five years for going armed with intent. Because Evans was 17 and a juvenile at the time of the shooting, Poulson must decide if and/or when he could be eligible for parole. Had Evans been an adult, he would automatically have been ineligible for parole.
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A Nov. 18 hearing is scheduled to hear evidence and arguments on whether Evans will be eligible for parole. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16.
Evans approached Harrison, who was fighting with Lawrence Canady, outside the bar at 1427 W. Third St. and shot him in the left flank and chest, apparently as revenge for Harrison striking a friend’s girlfriend days earlier. Harrison, 22, died a short time later at MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center.
Evans’ attorneys didn’t deny Evans pulled the trigger, but tried to convince jurors he was intoxicated at the time and was defending himself and others.
Evans was arrested three hours later near Canady’s house and was charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and failure to affix a drug tax stamp after police found marijuana and a scale in his room during a search of his home while investigating the shooting. Prior to Evans’ murder trial, Poulson ordered a separate trial on the drug charges. As part of Evans’ guilty plea, the drug tax stamp charge was dismissed.
Canady, 22, of Sioux City, is serving a 16-year prison sentence after a jury in December found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter, willful injury causing bodily injury and serious assault.