Aaron Thift Mugshot

Aaron Cory Thrift, 22, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison in the shooting death of his friend, Coy Lynn Bartlett. Thrift was convicted by a Jefferson County jury in February of this year. 

The shooting occurred in September of 2016, when the two were at Thrift’s home in Kimberly. According to police at the time, the two got into a verbal altercation that ended with Thrift shooting Bartlett in the head with a shotgun.

According to police, the two young men had known each other for years and were both graduates of Mortimer Jordan High School.

Thrift had previously applied for youthful offender status in the shooting, but that application was denied.