EL DORADO SPRINGS, Mo. — Four years after the killing of a Johnnie Billings, an El Dorado Springs man, his family members and friends say they are beginning to feel closure — though the outcome of the sentencing was not what they had hoped for.

“We wanted the maximum sentence — we wanted him to get life in prison without parole, but we’re thankful justice has finally been served in honor of Johnnie,” a family member of the victim told Ozarks First on the condition of anonymity. "These have been the most agonizing four years."

After entering an Alford plea of guilty to second-degree murder this summer, Alexzander Masters, born in 1999, was sentenced Thursday, Oct. 9, in Cedar County Circuit Court to 25 years in prison for the killing of Billings.

In September 2021, the El Dorado Springs

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