Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

COLUMBUS, GA. -- A 53-year-old Columbus man has been convicted of murder in the shooting of a bystander during a squabble with his former girlfriend.

Ulysses Wiggins was convicted on Tuesday of fatally shooting 24-year-old Catherine Walker on Dec. 16, 2008.

Muscogee County Superior Court Chief Judge John Allen, who convicted Wiggins after a one-day bench trial, told Wiggins the only sentence for a murder conviction is life in prison.

Wiggins insisted that he hadn't shot anyone.

Witnesses said Wiggins threatened his ex-girlfriend, Vallorice Caple, after she got into a car with another man, but she had made it back to her apartment before Wiggins fired the shot that killed Walker.

Caple testified that Wiggins ran away after shooting Walker and was captured a few minutes later.