LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville man has been sentenced to 22 years in prison after a jury convicted him of shooting an LMPD officer with her own gun.
Judge Audra Eckerle upheld the jury's recommended sentence for 27-year-old Joseph Starcher.
A jury found Starcher guilty of several charges last month, including attempted murder of a police officer for shooting LMPD Officer Andrea Rice several times in April 2009 at a home in Okolona.
Officer Rice was called there on reports of a domestic disturbance.
Witnesses said Starcher "was naked and had a crazed look on his face" just before he shot Rice.
The defense argued Starcher was psychotic after he got high on mushrooms, but the prosecution disagreed, saying Starcher was a self-proclaimed drug addict.
"You are a danger to the community and to society and were certainly a tremendous danger to everyone that day," Eckerle said.
Eckerle noted that Rice still has "bullets in her body today and has to live with that forever."
Rice had asked Eckerle to sentence Starcher to serve more time. She has returned to her job as a police officer.
Starcher's attorney, Patti Echsner, says she will appeal the sentence.
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