Vic Demone Houston, the man found guilty in June of shooting Athens Police Det. Brett Constable, was sentenced by Limestone Circuit Court Judge Jimmy Woodroof Wednesday to two life sentences plus 10 years.

Houston, 47, received a life sentence for attempted murder, a life sentence for shooting into an occupied vehicle and 10 years for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The sentences will run consecutively, said Limestone County District Attorney Kristi Valls.

“I think justice was served,” Valls said. “The sentence didn’t surprise me because he had a mandatory sentence under the Habitual Felony Offender Act.”

Under this act, the judge could have sentenced Houston to either life in prison or 99 years for each of the charges of attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle.

Houston has four previous felony convictions. Valls introduced two of those — one for interference with custody and one for assault —during trial to prove Houston was a habitual offender. Houston was also convicted previously for unlawful possession of a controlled substance and felony driving under the influence, Valls said.

Houston was accused of shooting and wounding Constable on June 19, 2005, when the then-plain clothes officer drove his pickup at him to thwart a possible shooting into a crowd of bystanders at a party where fighting and gunfire erupted at the American Legion post on Cloverleaf Drive.

A bullet grazed Constable’s thumb and arm before entering the right side of his chest and exiting from under his right armpit. He has since recovered from his wounds.

Throughout the three days of testimony and in his summation statements, defense attorney Garry Clem repeatedly emphasized what he called “red flags” in police procedure followed the night of the shooting and the subsequent investigation by the Limestone County Sheriff’s Department. Chief among Clem’s contentions was that investigators used as their sole source of information, Vic Houston’s brother, Val Houston, who is facing a felony charge for firing into an occupied dwelling. He asked Val Houston under cross-examination if he had cut a deal with prosecutors to testify against his brother. He said that he hadn’t.

Clem said none of the dozens of partygoers questioned the night of the shooting had named Vic Houston as the shooter.

Valls said her evidence was sound with having an eyewitness, a gun linked to Houston that a Alabama Department of Forensic Science ballistics specialist matched to spent cartridges and bullets retrieved from the scene, and Houston’s taped statement that he was involved in the shooting.