NATCHEZ — A Natchez man was sentenced Tuesday to 45 years for murdering a man in a 2011 botched robbery that turned deadly.

Davarious Clemons, 20, 224 Oakland Drive, plead to the lesser charge of manslaughter in Circuit Court Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson’s court Tuesday. Johnson sentenced Clemons to 20 years for manslaughter and 45 years for armed robbery. The two sentences are to run concurrent.

Clemons was 19 when he arrested for the Oct. 7, 2011, killing of 30-year-old Cedric Morgan, an act to which he pleaded “not guilty” in April in front of Johnson.

Morgan and his wife, Crystal, were in their car at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and St. Catherine streets, where investigators said Clemons tried to rob them, threatening the couple with a gun.

Cedric reportedly refused to give him money and attempted to flee, driving away.

But before he could get away, the suspect allegedly fired a shot into the vehicle. The bullet struck Cedric in the chest but he kept driving, crashing the vehicle three blocks later into a brick fence on Jefferson Street.

The Natchez Police Department responded to a call concerning the crash at 11:55 p.m., but Cedric had already died before they arrived on the scene.

Clemons was also charged in connection with a January armed robbery that happened behind the Seven-Star Store on U.S. 61 North while he was out on bond awaiting trial for Morgan’s murder. The state dismissed that charge when Clemons pleaded Tuesday.

Johnson said Clemons apologized to Morgan’s family at the sentencing, and Morgan’s mother offered her forgiveness.

“She said ‘I forgive you because I wan to go to heaven to see my son, and we are to forgive, so I forgive you,’” Johnson said. “It was pretty powerful.”