Tuskegee man gets 35 years in Auburn murder

A Tuskegee, Ala., man was sentenced Dec. 15 to 35 years in prison for the 2013 murder of his longtime friend, and an Opelika, Ala., man was sentenced to 35 years in a separate attempted murder case, District Attorney Robbie Treese announced Thursday in a release.

The sentence for Gregory Stephen Gray Jr., 24, came three months after he was convicted by a Lee County jury on Sept. 22 in the 2013 murder of Richard Kenneth DeVore, 24. DeVore was stabbed to death more than 30 times at the Garden District Apartment Complex in Auburn.

During the trial that started on Sept. 17, 27 witnesses were called by the district attorney's office, and there were more than 250 exhibits. They included photographs from the crime scene and more than 30 knife wounds on the victim.

In other court action, Wardell McClendon, 46, of Opelika was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the attempted murder of a female relative in Opelika in 2001. The sentence came more than three months after McClendon was convicted Sept. 25 by a Lee County jury.

Because McClendon was held in Georgia, the trial was delayed until the district attorney's office requested the Circuit Court to reinstate a 2002 indictment.

The three-day trial started on Sept. 22.

Treese is hopeful the sentences provide some measure of justice for the victims and their families.

"Each investigation was conducted with the degree of professionalism we have come to expect from law enforcement in Lee County," Treese said.

This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Tuskegee man gets 35 years in Auburn murder ."