Published: October 29, 2009 11:33 pm      

Prison sentence issued in Campbell burglary

A Hunt County jury found a Campbell man guilty of breaking down the door of a residence in the city in March of last year.

The same panel sentenced Eddy Merle Isham to prison Thursday, but also found Isham not guilty of two counts of aggravated assault in connection with the same alleged incident.

Isham, 52, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit assault.

A jury in the 354th District Court returned a guilty verdict involving the burglary charge an sentenced the defendant to seven year in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Institutional Division. Isham was facing a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison for a conviction on any of the three indictments.

Isham was alleged in the indictments to have threatened two of the occupants of the residence on FM 513 South in Campbell with a shotgun on the evening of March 23, 2008. Isham was reported in a criminal complaint filed by the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office to have arrived at the home, where he was confronted by a man living at the residence with whom Isham had been having a dispute over the ownership of the building.

Isham was alleged to have kicked in the door of the residence, then to have pointed the gun at the woman and toddler child and threatened to kill them. The male resident was said in the report to have fought with Isham over the shotgun, as the woman grabbed the child and ran to a neighbor’s house. Isham allegedly fired one shot in the direction of the woman and child, before the man grabbed the gun from Isham and hit him in the head with the stock of the weapon. The man then reportedly fired four shots in the ground to scare Isham off.

Investigators later discovered five spent 20-gauge shell casings on the property.

Isham had also filed a civil lawsuit against the individuals with whom he allegedly had the altercation last year. The suit remained pending as of Thursday afternoon.