Disgraced Ex-Deputy Sentenced To twenty Years For Sonya Massey’s Homicide

[ad_1] by Keka Araújo January 29, 2026

He was 45 years initially.

The previous Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed Sonya Massey in her residence was sentenced Thursday to twenty years in jail, the utmost penalty allowed beneath a second-degree homicide conviction.

Sean Grayson, 31, appeared handcuffed in a Seventh Judicial Circuit courtroom as Choose Ryan Cadagin handed down the sentence. Underneath Illinois regulation, Grayson is required to serve 50% of the time period, leading to a 10-year jail sentence as soon as credit score for time already served is utilized. Following his launch, he'll endure two years of obligatory supervised launch.

The sentencing marks the conclusion of a case that ignited nationwide outrage and localized protests within the Cabbage Patch neighborhood, the place Massey, a 36-year-old Black mom of two, was killed in July 2024.

The listening to was outlined by emotional testimony from Massey’s household. Her mom, Donna Massey, confronted Grayson immediately, echoing her daughter’s ultimate moments by telling the courtroom, “Sean Grayson, I rebuke you within the title of Jesus.” She later expressed gratitude that the choose utilized the utmost potential sentence.

Massey’s son, Malachi Hill-Massey, advised the courtroom his “soul is ripped” by the loss. On the similar time, his sister, Jeanette “Summer season” Massey, described the loss of life as a traumatic expertise that has essentially altered her life.

Grayson, who was identified with Stage 4 most cancers that has unfold to his liver and lungs, spoke briefly earlier than the sentence was learn. He requested the household for forgiveness and higher the ask now- as a result of it seems the disgraced former cop received’t have 20 years, stating there have been “no phrases I can say to take again the anger and harm I precipitated.”

Grayson was initially charged with first-degree homicide by Sangamon County State’s Lawyer John Milhiser, a conviction that might have carried a minimal of 45 years. Nevertheless, jurors had been supplied with a second-degree homicide instruction and returned that lesser verdict on Oct. 29 after 12 hours of deliberation.

Regardless of the decrease conviction, Massey’s father, James Wilburn, famous that Grayson remained unrepentant till his courtroom apology. Wilburn added that whereas he's happy with the state’s sentence, he's calling for federal authorities to cost Grayson with civil rights violations.

Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, who symbolize the Massey household, referred to as the sentence a step towards accountability.

“Accountability has begun, and we now hope the courtroom will impose a significant sentence that displays the severity of those crimes and the life that was misplaced,” the attorneys mentioned in a joint assertion. “We are going to proceed to struggle for Sonya’s household and for reforms that shield everybody from illegal use of power.”

Outdoors the courthouse, protesters who braved sub-freezing temperatures erupted in cheers because the information of the 20-year sentence reached the road.