Man sentenced to life plus 115 years for shooting Springfield Officer Aaron Pearson

Show Caption Hide Caption Joshua Hagood sentenced to life plus 115 years in prison Joshua Hagood was sentenced after being found guilty of shooting police officer Aaron Pearson in 2015.

The man who shot Springfield Police Officer Aaron Pearson in the head last year was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison, plus 115 years.

Joshua Hagood, 34, was sentenced by Judge David Jones after a jury found Hagood guilty of first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and two other felonies following a three-day trial in August.

In handing down the sentence, Jones said he never wanted Hagood to get out of prison.

"It's really an assault on society as a whole," Jones said. "It will not and cannot be tolerated."

Pearson did not attend Wednesday's sentencing hearing, but his wife, Amanda, gave a victim impact statement during which she admonished Hagood for thinking only of himself and not showing remorse.

"It's not just your life," Amanda said. "It's my life, it's Aaron Pearson's life."

Hagood did not read a formal statement during the sentencing hearing. He told the judge after the sentence was handed down that he did not think his attorney, Jon Van Arkel, did an adequate job.

"We didn't see eye to eye on an attack on this," Hagood said

Judge Jones said he disagreed with Hagood's assessment about his attorney, but he would make sure Hagood got a new lawyer for any future court proceedings.

Hagood was sentenced to 30 years or life in prison for the first-degree assault conviction, plus 100 years for armed criminal action, plus 15 years for unlawful possession of a firearm.

Asked at what age Hagood would be eligible for parole, Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson said there is some complicated math, but the simple answer is that Hagood will never get there.

The sentencing hearing was held in the largest courtroom at the Greene County courthouse, and all of the seats were filled, mostly with Springfield police officers.

After the hearing, Amanda Pearson did a video chat with her husband from the courtroom, and the officers in attendance gave him a standing ovation.

Amanda Pearson said she felt like justice was served with Wednesday's sentence.

According to a probable cause statement used to charge Hagood last year, police went to an area near Chestnut Expressway and Glenstone Avenue in the early morning hours of Jan. 26, 2015, after observing some suspicious activity.

Officer Pearson attempted to stop a man, believed to be Hagood, who was walking away from the area toward the O'Reilly Auto Parts store on the northwest side of the intersection.

Then witnesses heard gunshots.

Pearson was found lying in a grassy area along the parking lot with a gunshot wound to the head.

An intense seven-hour manhunt ensued before Hagood was found hiding in a fenced-in lot at 1835 E. Chestnut Expressway, about 200 yards away from where Pearson was shot.

Prosecutors say Hagood turned and shot Pearson when the officer tried to stop him.

During the trial, police officers testified they found Hagood with a holster in his pants and then recovered a handgun nearby.

Pearson, who has no memory of the morning he was shot, did not testify at the trial.

Police initially described Pearson's injuries as life-threatening. He was placed in a medically induced coma, and doctors feared he would never walk or talk again.

The officer made an impressive recovery, however, as the Springfield community donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the family. Pearson is now able to walk, talk, run and lift weights, although he does still suffer some effects from the shooting, including seizures and struggles with his speech.

Pearson’s father, Winston, is a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, and his father-in-law, Tom Dempsey, is a retired Springfield police sergeant. Both were in attendance on Wednesday.

Winston Pearson said he still struggles with guilt that his son was injured after following in his footsteps to become a law enforcement officer.

"My son is my hero," Winston Pearson said. "I have been in (law enforcement) for 32 years. I've been shot at, kicked, spit on, pulled hair, I've been cut, but nothing like this."

Winston Pearson said he felt relief when the judge read the sentence.

"It's like we have closed a chapter," he said. "It's closure, and now we can move forward."

Amanda Pearson said she also felt relief that her children won't have to worry about Hagood getting out of custody.

Amanda Pearson said the shooting has changed her life, and she didn't want to hold back when she read her victim impact statement, in which she told Hagood that he would miss out on his son's life and his grandparents' funerals.

"He shot my husband in the face, so he doesn't deserve sugarcoating," Amanda Pearson said.

She said she hopes Hagood will someday take responsibility for his actions, but she was not surprised that he did not apologize on Wednesday.

Amanda Pearson explained that her husband is still dealing with a lot of anger and he did not think it would be a good idea to be in court during the trial or sentencing.

"He still isn't over everything that happened, so it would not be healthy for him to be here," she said.

During the court hearing on Wednesday, Patterson — the prosecutor — asked Judge Jones to consider a pair of sentences that would ensure Hagood never gets out of prison.

One of Patterson's proposed sentences was to give Hagood 1,641 months in prison, to match up with Officer Pearson's badge number.

Instead, the judge gave him more.

Patterson explained during the hearing that Hagood has been behind bars for most of this millennium and accrued several felony convictions. He asked Jones to send a message to law enforcement officers with this sentence.

"If someone tries to kill them while they're doing their job, that person should never have the opportunity to do that again," Patterson said.

Hagood's grandmother, Leora, also spoke during Wednesday's hearing. She told the court her grandson had a difficult upbringing and has long suffered from anger problems and mental health issues.

Van Arkel, Hagood's attorney, asked the judge to sentence Hagood to something closer to the minimum 10 years in prison.

There's no attempted murder charge in Missouri, although the first-degree assault charge of which Hagood was convicted contains language about attempting to kill a victim.