LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man convicted of a July 2015 Clearlake murder was sentenced on Monday after spending nearly a year seeking a new trial.

Judge Andrew Blum handed down the sentence to Billy Raymond Mount, 37, of Clearlake during a Monday afternoon appearance in Lake County Superior Court.

A jury convicted Mount in August of the shooting death of 40-year-old Steven Galvin of Clearlake.

Mount was found guilty of second-degree murder, assault with a firearm, discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm, and special allegations including shooting a firearm from a vehicle, discharge of a handgun, personal use of a firearm, inflicting great bodily injury and being a member of a criminal street gang in August, as Lake County News has reported.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe said that in his sentencing decision, Judge Blum stayed some of the lesser charges of which Mount was convicted, such as discharge of a handgun and personal use of a firearm.

“He stayed some lesser offenses and allegations that were included in the sentence for some greater and more aggravated counts and allegations,” Grothe said.

Blum gave Mount a determinate sentence of 17 years; after Mount is done serving those 17 years, he will begin to serve the indeterminate part of his sentence, which Grothe said is 45 years to life.

Since his conviction last summer, Mount had been attempting to get a new trial, Grothe said.

Mount hired a new attorney, who Grothe said needed a long time to review the trial record.

Galvin had been walking through a neighborhood on 35th Avenue in Clearlake on the afternoon of July 2, 2015, when a small white pickup pulled up and two shots were fired. He was struck once in the back by a .22-caliber bullet.

Galvin died a short time later, not long after he had told a detective who arrived on scene that “Cyclops” – a Clearlake man named David Cox – was responsible for shooting him.

The defense had argued that Cox had actually been the gunman due to his confrontations with Galvin because Cox believed Galvin had stolen his tablet computer.

Cox received three immunity agreements from local authorities for cooperating with the investigation as well as for testifying both at the preliminary hearing and trial.

At trial, Cox said Mount confessed to him that he shot Galvin.

Another witness who testified at the trial, Sean Whiteman, said Mount had ridden in Whiteman's white Chevy S10 pickup to the shooting scene.

Whiteman also led police to a gun that he said was involved in the shooting, although authorities could not lift prints or DNA from the weapon. However, they were able to find Mount’s print and DNA on a CD case in Whiteman’s pickup.

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