JACKSON (AP) — A man serving a life prison sentence in the shooting death of a Mississippi state trooper in the early 1980s has died.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections says 66-year-old Otis Lee Fairley died Friday at Baptist Medical Center in Jackson.

Fairley was convicted of homicide/murder in the 1981 New Year’s Eve killing of Mississippi Highway Patrol Trooper 1st Class Billy M. Langham.

Fairley had been sentenced on July 29, 1982, for his role in the trooper’s slaying. Authorities said he was one of four men in a car Langham stopped on U.S. 49 near Collins on Dec. 31, 1981.

The cause and manner of Fairley’s death are pending an autopsy.