White man, 53, who shot two black shoppers dead at a Kentucky grocery store receives third life sentence from federal judge for hate crimes

A white man convicted of fatally shooting two black shoppers at a Kentucky grocery store has been sentenced to life in prison for a third time by a federal judge.

Gregory Bush, 53, shot and killed Maurice Stallard, 69, and Vickie Jones, 67, at the Jeffersontown, Kentucky, Kroger supermarket on October, 24, 2018.

He was given two life sentences in December after pleading guilty but mentally ill to state charges on two counts of murder, criminal attempted murder and wanton endangerment.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom added a federal sentence of life in prison along with 10 years of additional confinement for gun and hate crimes. 

During the sentencing Thursday, Judge Boom told Gregory Bush that she hopes he learns to 'reject' the 'hate and bigotry' that led to the murders.

Stallard and Jones 'were targeted specifically because of the color of their skin,' Boom said.

Given the chance to speak, Bush said Thursday he was 'so sorry that this happened. I'm so sorry.'

Gregory Bush (pictured after his arrest in 2018) was given a third life sentence Thursday for the murders of two people outside a Kentucky grocery store

Bush, who has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, said he was off his medication and 'hearing voices' and 'demons' that told him to kill his biracial son.

Bush was initially found incompetent to stand trial in 2019 but was later deemed competent after undergoing weeks of treatment at the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center.  

Bush was facing a minimum punishment of 30 years in prison but not the death penalty after pleading guilty to two counts of a hate crime resulting in death, three counts of using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and one count of a hate crime with attempt to murder.

Investigators said the two victims had never met Bush.

Maurice Stallard, 69, was shot and killed by Gregory Bush while shopping for school supplies for his grandson

Vickie Jones, 67, was shot multiple times by Gregory Bush in the Kroger parking lot 

Police and prosecutors had previously confirmed that Bush also told an armed person outside the store to not 'shoot me I won´t shoot you. Whites don´t shoot whites.' 

Police said Bush first stopped at a historically Black church nearby before heading with his handgun to the busy grocery store. 

Bush walked into the store, pulled a gun from his waist and shot Stallard in the back of the head, then kept shooting him multiple times.

Stallard had stopped off at the store to buy supplies for his grandson's science project.

The report said Bush reholstered his gun, walked outside and killed Jones in the parking lot. 

Each victim died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Jones' sister, Samuella Gathright, spoke directly to Bush on Thursday and told him, 'I don't hate you,' she said, 'because hate will not bring my sister back.'   

'Their lives mattered,' Maurice Stallard's daughter Kellie Stallard-Watson said to Bush in the courtroom reported WLKY. 

'Their legacies can't be the way that they died. They were much more than that and so it was very important to communicate to the court today that they have family that care, that still love them and that they are more than what happened to them.'

Stallard Watson called on state legislators to pass hate-crime legislation similar to the federal laws.

'There really needs to be an appropriate standard, an appropriate level of justice to deter that level of fear, that level of intimidation, that level of hate they try to communicate to others,' she said. 

Police said Bush first stopped at the historically black Jeffersontown Baptist Church nearby, but the door was locked and he left

Bush's attorney argued that on the day of the shooting, he was suffering from schizophrenia and was not medicated. Bush was initially found incompetent to stand trial but was later deemed competent after undergoing treatment 

 After Bush was sentenced to the state charges last year, relatives of the victims  delivered emotional impact victim statements, speaking of their anger and loss, and demanding answers, according to WDRB.

'I just don't understand why you selected anyone ... It can’t be just for the color of their skin,' said Charlotte Stallard, Maurice's wife. 'To me it has to be more than that. You can’t hate someone that much for the color of their skin. You have ruined my life. I’d like to just have an idea why?'

The man's daughter, Kellie Watson, described her father as a loving person who was there for everyone.

'I hope that while you are sitting in jail, you are able to reconcile your own life and think about what you did,' she said in court. 'And I'm grateful you will never be able to hurt anyone else.'

 Sanuella Gathright, Jones's sister, broke down in tears as she addressed Bush directly: 'I pray for you, because I don't know how you look yourself in the mirror, how you live with yourself.'