An Illinois jury convicted a former sheriff’s deputy of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old woman, inside her home.
Former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson was initially charged with first-degree murder. The Peoria County jury opted to convict him of second-degree murder, a lesser charge with a lower prison sentence.
Massey’s father, James Wilburn, called the jury’s verdict a “miscarriage of justice,” while the attorneys of the victim’s family, Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, said that some degree of justice had been served.
“While we believe Grayson’s actions deserved a first-degree conviction, today’s verdict is still a measure of justice for Sonya Massey,” Crump and Romanucci said in a statement released after the verdict was announced on Oct. 29….