Judge Reduces 70-Year Prison Sentence For Miller Park Teen Shooter peoriapublicradio.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from peoriapublicradio.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Byron Merriweather was 17 when he shot a man at Miller Park during a 2003 fight between rival Twin City gangs, a crime that netted the teen 70 years in prison.
Merriweather, now 35, was in court on Friday for a new sentencing hearing ordered by the Fourth District Appellate Court. Merriweather was sentenced prior to several U.S. Supreme Court rulings and a decision by the Illinois Supreme Court on the issue of what amounts to life sentences for juveniles.
Judge Casey Costigan heard three hours of testimony some of it emotional from Merriweather’s family and a childhood friend who now supports Merriweather’s goal of becoming a youth counselor.
David Proeber / The Pantagraph (Pool)
The McLean County judge who will determine a verdict in the June 2018 triple homicide on Bloomington s Riley Drive heard opening statements Monday in the case against Sydney Mays.
Mays is charged with nine counts of murder in the deaths of Nate Pena and Corey Jackson, both 22, and Juan Carlos Perez, 33. He also is charged with attempted murder for causing injuries that paralyzed Pena’s son, who was 4 at the time, and aggravated discharge of a firearm.
If convicted, Mays could be sentenced to life in prison.
In his opening remarks, First Assistant State’s Attorney Brad Rigdon said two sets of gunshots were fired from two different caliber weapons during the incident. Twelve rounds were fired inside the third-floor apartment on Riley Drive where Pena and Jackson were found. Another six rounds came from a second handgun used to kill Perez, described by Rigdon as a Good Samaritan who died as he went to check on the child after he hear