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Posted: 07-12-2002 03:53 Post subject: When murder is justified

BANDERA -- A jury Thursday handed a life sentence to a man who shot and killed a longtime friend he accused of drinking the last beer in his refrigerator.

Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before passing the sentence on Steven Brasher, 42, for the murder of Willie Lawson, 39, on Nov. 5, 2001.

"There was only two beers left, so I took one, and I told Willie not to take my last beer," Brasher said in a taped statement that was played during the trial.

Testimony showed Brasher shot Lawson in the head with a pistol after the two began arguing over the missing beer. Brasher maintained the shooting was an accident.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1691196