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By MARK MORRIS

The Kansas City Star

A father’s grief helped a Jackson County judge sentence a man to life in prison Wednesday for the murder of a Kansas City neighborhood leader.

Wendell Holden of El Dorado urged Judge Robert M. Schieber to sentence Torry M. Johnson, 27, to the maximum possible for the second-degree murder of his son, Eric Holden, 46.

“If there was any way (Johnson) could have gotten the death penalty, I would have paid for the electricity and pulled the switch,” Holden testified. “To let this fellow have the least amount of time...