Man pleads guilty to murder at Southern Pines party honoring shooting victim

A Southern Pines man will spend at least 21 years in prison for a shooting death at a party to remember his murdered brother, authorities said Tuesday.

Marshall Tristan Shaw pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and was sentenced to a maximum of 26¼ years in prison.

Shaw hosted a June 29, 2013, party at his South Hardin Street home in memory of his brother, David Shaw, who had been killed a year earlier, authorities said. Floyd Elmer Williams Jr., 27, of Aberdeen was shot and killed during the gathering, but none of the people there would tell police what happened.

Police eventually found the murder weapon in South Carolina and persuaded a reluctant eyewitness to testify, authorities said, and Marshall Shaw was arrested in July 2014. While in custody, he admitted to another inmate he had shot Williams, authorities said.