BEAUMONT — A Louisiana man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection with a 2017 fatal shooting at Villa Main Apartments.

Abraham Emanuel Washington, 30, of Rayne, La., originally charged with murder pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter for the death of Joseph Lindley, 29, of Beaumont, according to a clerk with Criminal District Judge John Stevens’ court on Monday.

Witnesses told police that the two men were “close confidants” and had been committing a number of crimes together and that Lindley had told some of their victims that it was Washington who had committed the crimes. This allegedly made Washington upset with Lindley, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The two men had been in communication with each other prior to the killing and a cellphone search allegedly showed Washington was not in Baytown but was in close proximity to Lindley at the time of the crime.

Lindley was found at 4 a.m. on Sept. 25, 2017, lying unconscious on a sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the head at Villa Main Apartments, 901 Main Avenue in Port Arthur. He was taken to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas, where he died.

Washington was arrested in April 2018 and bond set at $750,000.

A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Washington for the shooting death in May 2018.

Lindley is survived by the mother of his four children — three girls and a boy.