James Spikes Sr., 58, of Bogalusa, received the maximum sentence of life imprisonment Monday under the state’s multiple offender law for distributing oxycodone during a 2013 undercover drug operation.

According to a press release from the office of District Attorney Warren Montgomery, Spikes had 17 prior felony convictions and a first-degree murder charge pending against him.

Spikes was arrested Jan. 28, 2013, after selling Roxycontin to a confidential informant as part of a Drug Task Force operation in Bogalusa. A Washington Parish jury found Spikes guilty of the crime on Aug. 25.

Franklinton man gets 60 years in shooting death

Montgomery’s office also announced that James Frank Earl, 45, of Franklinton, was sentenced Monday as a multiple offender to 60 years in prison for manslaughter in the 2011 shooting death of a 45-year-old man. Earl has multiple prior felony convictions.

A jury found Earl guilty March 4 in the shooting death of Raymond Terry Lyons, 45. Earl was one of three defendants convicted.  Two other defendants — Donald Dawson, 29, of Franklinton, and Ricky Magee, 45, of Franklinton — pled guilty to manslaughter.

The murder took place on Jan. 6, 2011. At Old Jenkins Road, Earl pulled up to a car waiting on the side of the road. Earl exited his vehicle and used a two-by-four to beat Lyons, who was a passenger in the waiting car, in the head. Earl then shot Lyons through the windshield in the chest.