MOIBLE, Ala. (WKRG) — The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a murder conviction of 24-year-old Mikel Pettway in connection to a March 2019 shooting, according to a release from the Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.

Pettway was convicted in the Mobile County Circuit Court in February 2022 for the manslaughter of LaQuan Packer.

According to the release, Pettway shot Packer in the back, killing him on March 22, 2019. Officials said Pettway got into the backseat of a car to “conduct a drug deal between him and the victim.”

The victim already owed Pettway money for a previous drug purchase and an argument “quickly ensued” leading to Pettway taking out a pistol and shooting Packer in the back.

Pettway was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

“Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood’s office successfully prosecuted this
case and obtained a guilty verdict,” according to the release.

“The Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division handled the case during the appeals process, arguing for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to affirm Pettway’s conviction,” reads the release. “The Court did so in a decision issued Friday, February 3, 2023.”