A man charged in the March 2016 beating of a Vicksburg man in the parking lot at Blackburn Motors has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty in Warren County Circuit Court to attempted murder and armed carjacking.

Circuit Judge M. James Chaney sentenced Christopher Livingston, 26, to 35 years for attempted murder and 20 years with 10 to serve for armed carjacking. The sentences will be served consecutively for a total of 45 years. He will be placed on five years’ post-release supervision after his release.

Christopher Brown, 27, who was also charged in the case, was convicted on the same charges after a trial in March, and sentenced to a total of 55 years in prison.

Brown and Livingston were charged with the attempted murder and carjacking of John Thomas, 52, who  was found by a police officer in the parking lot at Blackburn Motors.

The men escaped from a work detail while assigned to the Mississippi Department of Corrections’ Hinds County Restitution Center in early March. After beating Thomas and taking his car, they left the state and were caught in Las Cruces, New Mexico after they were stopped by an officer for driving a vehicle without a license plate, and a records check revealed the 2014 silver Honda Accord the men were in belonged to Thomas.