A jury found Derek Gordon Farris guilty of murder yesterday in the death of his friend and neighbor Lloyd Wayne Cumbers, but family and friends of both men were still wondering why the shooting happened.

Apparently, the only two witnesses to the incident on Aug. 30, 2004, at 105 Wittland Lane, were Cumbers and Farris, a 66-year-old retired mechanic and Vietnam War veteran.

Other than to say that Cumbers, 65, had told lies about people and had threatened him two or three times, Farris, on a police interrogation tape played at the trial Wednesday, did not offer specifics about "things" he said had been "building up for a long time" between them.

Farris, who admitted to police that he shot Cumbers twice, did not testify at the two-day trial in Fayette Circuit Court. The jury recommended a 30-year prison sentence for Farris.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Herbert West asked jurors to consider finding Farris guilty of the lesser offense of first-degree manslaughter because it was "pretty obvious that this is a case of extreme emotional disturbance" and not a planned event.

He asked jurors to consider the facts that Farris called police immediately after the incident and that he had no police record, other than a couple of DUI arrests many years ago. West said the gun used in the incident, a .22-caliber Italian-made revolver, was a cheap one, not something that someone planning on shooting anybody would use.

"The evidence indicates that this is not a case of murder," he said.

But prosecutor Cindy Rieker said Farris told police that Cumbers did not threaten him on the night of the shooting.

She said police had asked Farris repeatedly what happened that night and that Farris had replied he didn't know.

"He took his life for lies -- for lies because that's the best he has to offer in his statements to police," the assistant Commonwealth's attorney said. She said Farris walked up to Cumbers and shot him, and Cumbers did not have time to react.

"There certainly is no evidence to the fact that he told any lies, is there?" she said.

Cumbers and Farris shared the subdivided house on Wittland Lane, just off North Limestone Street. They had worked together at Alvin Haynes & Sons Trucking Co. -- Cumbers drove dump truck No. 52 and used the handle "Cucumber;" Farris was a truck mechanic. The two men held family cookouts together. Cumbers' son Tim considered Farris his "second father," friends and family members said during breaks in court proceedings.

Cumbers' daughter, Judy Cumbers of Yerrington, Nev., told jurors she lost her job and had to move away from Lexington because of the shooting.

"This just didn't take away my father, it took away my best friend," she said.

Farris' daughter, Doris Elane Cross of Augusta, said she had seen her father cry only twice -- at the funeral of the uncle who raised him and the first time she went to see him in jail.

"This is not my dad. He is a good man," she said later during a break.

Judge Thomas Clark set formal sentencing for Nov. 18. If Clark follows the jury's recommendation, Farris will be eligible for parole in 20 years.

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