William Woodard sentenced to life in prison in shooting death of DeKalb officers

A DeKalb County jury has sentenced William Woodard to life without parole in the shooting deaths of two DeKalb County police officers.

Last week a jury found Woodard, 31, guilty of fatally shooting Officers Ricky Bryant Jr. and Eric Barker.

The officers were gunned down working off-duty security jobs at an apartment complex near Decatur in 2008.

Woodard, a three-time convicted felon, said he had never been mistreated by an officer before the confrontation in question. He said he was down on the ground when the officers beat him and opened fire. Prosecutors said he shot them to avoid going back to prison.

It took about seven hours for jurors to find Woodard guilty on all eight charges against him. A gag order prevented attoeys on both sides from discussing the verdict, but Woodard's family maintained his innocence.

"They're covering up a lot of stuff. The state is covering up a lot of stuff," Woodard's mother, Emily Gutierrez, told GA Daily News on her way out of court last week.