By REBECCA COOK
Staff Writer

Lisa Burgess lay on the floor of her mobile home, a bullet lodged in her spine and two more in her chest. Her 4-year-old son watched as she struggled to reach the door. Then Clinton ``Lonny'' Lockridge, Burgess' ex-boyfriend and the father of her son, walked back into the room.

He aimed the gun at her head.

``Die, bitch,'' he said and pulled the trigger until he ran out of bullets.

Police officers who responded to the scene were sure Burgess, 26, wouldn't live.

But she did. She survived, and on Monday she saw Lockridge plead guilty to the Jan. 27 shooting that paralyzed her from the waist down and changed her and her family's lives forever.

Judge John Hayes sentenced Lockridge, 31, to 30 years in jail. He pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and battery with intent to kill - he also shot and wounded Burgess' friend and co-worker David Coblentz - and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

Prosecutor Willie Thompson told the story of the shooting, based on Lockridge's confession to police, before Hayes sentenced Lockridge Monday.

Lockridge had been drinking during the night. At about 6 a.m. the next morning he drove to the Rock Hill Wal-Mart and bought bullets for a .22-caliber handgun. Then he drove to Burgess' house on Meadow Bend Drive east of York - to apologize to their son, he says.

Burgess let him inside, and they argued. What happened after that is unclear. Burgess remembers Lockridge saying he needed to go to the truck to get a present for their son - and returning with a loaded gun.

But Lockridge said he got upset when he saw Coblentz, who Burgess had asked to stay with her. He recalls Burgess said to him: ``I don't love you anymore. Just get out and leave me alone.''

``That's when I got the gun,'' he said.

As their son watched, Lockridge shot Burgess three times and Coblentz once in the arm. Coblentz ran out the back door and called 911 at a neighbor's house. Lockridge followed him out, then returned.

He shot Burgess in the face twice - one bullet split her tongue in two. Then he knocked out her front four teeth.

A York County Sheriff's deputy arrested Lockridge as he was leaving the house with his gun and his son. He surrendered peacefully and confessed later that day.

Lockridge's family pleaded for leniency in court Monday. He faced up to 45 years in prison.

``He's always been a good daddy,'' said Diane Allen, his mother. ``I don't think he'd do anything like this again.''

Lockridge apologized to Burgess and her family.

``I never intended to hurt nobody that day,'' he said. ``I love Lisa, and I love my kids.''

Hayes ordered Lockridge to pay for Coblentz's $1,240 medical bill and Burgess's medical bills, which are $100,000 and rising. Lockridge must serve at least 25-1/2 years of his 30-year sentence before he's eligible for parole.

Burgess sat in her purple and black wheelchair and covered her mouth with her hand as the prosecutor described what Lockridge had done to her.

She's undergone weeks of painful physical therapy to be able to lift herself in and out of her wheelchair; speech therapy has taught her how to talk with missing teeth and a sewn-together tongue. She's still working on regaining use of her right hand, which is partially paralyzed, and she's looking forward to getting a new set of teeth soon.

Kelly Rainey, 25, sobbed in the courtroom as she listened to the details of her sister's shooting. Rainey and her mother are caring for Burgess' son, now 5, and her two daughters, ages 10 and 12.

Family members are relieved that this chapter in her ordeal has ended. But they are angry that Lockridge will walk out of jail a free man in 25 years - while Burgess will never walk again.

``We think (the sentence) should have been higher,'' Kelly Rainey said afterward, as the family circled Burgess. ``The biggest victims in this are her kids.''

Burgess had been stoic in the courtroom, but at her sister's words, her face crumpled.

``I can't care for them,'' she said, raising her hands in frustration. Her 10-year-old daughter fell into her arms, hugging her.

Burgess' doctors told her family it's a miracle she survived. Four of the five bullets remain lodged in her body. A long red scar, one of many, rests above her breastbone.

Ask Burgess how she survived, and she smiles and points her one good hand to the sky. She struggles to speak, but there's no mistaking her answer.

``God.''