BATON ROUGE — A man convicted of the shooting death of a former Baton Rouge Police officer who attempted to stop a vehicle break-in in his neighborhood in April 2020 was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the District Attorney said Monday. 

Craig Willis, 31, was sentenced after he was found guilty in August of manslaughter, burglary and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The mother of 41-year-old Ryan Hord, who was killed in the 2020 shooting, requested the court impose the maximum sentence of 40 years, District Attorney Hillar Moore said. 

"Craig Willis was sentenced to 25 years on the count of manslaughter and in the coming weeks, my office will gather the pertinent records of Willis's criminal history in this State and in Texas to determine whether we are able to seek enhancement of his sentence via the habitual offender statute," Moore said in a statement.

Hord was killed after he and Willis exchanged gunfire after Hord confronted him for breaking into a car just before midnight on Richland Avenue between North Boulevard and Government Street. WBRZ reported that Willis was wounded following the shooting and charged after being treated for his injuries.

Willis initially faced a charge of second-degree murder, which is punishable by a mandatory life term.