Mays Sentened to Life in Prison 3x for 2018 Triple Homicide cities929.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cities929.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Sydney Mays Jr. was sentenced to three life terms in prison Friday for murder in the 2018 Bloomington shooting that killed three people and left a 4-year-old boy paralyzed.
Eric Stock / WGLT
McLean County prosecutors call it an unprecedented time in their office.
They have tried 10 murder defendants in less than two years. The last nine defendants were convicted. McLean County State s Attorney Don Knapp said he hopes the convictions have a chilling effect on crime in Bloomington-Normal.
“If people haven’t figured out what happens to folks that want to use violence and usually illegal guns to settle disputes, I don’t know how much plainer we can make it,” Knapp said.
Knapp called a news conference Tuesday and assembled his prosecutors who tried those cases and local police who investigated the cases to detail how they have managed the multitude of high-profile murders.
David Proeber / The Pantagraph (Pool)
A judge found Sydney Mays guilty Wednesday of fatally wounding three men and critically injuring a child during a 2018 shooting in Bloomington.
Mays had no reaction when Judge Casey Costigan delivered his decision that followed a six-day bench trial. The decision was delivered in a 45-minute ruling.
The 24-year-old defendant was convicted of killing Nate Pena and Corey Jackson, both 22, and Juan Carlos Perez, 33, in what police contend was a drug-related robbery by Mays.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Mays set his sights on robbing Pena and Jackson after he saw a Snapchat photo posted by Jackson of a large amount of cash. Mays went to Pena’s apartment on June 18, 2018, where he allegedly shot the two men and wounded Pena’s 4-year-old son who survived, but who is paralyzed as a result of his injuries.
David Proeber / The Pantagraph (Pool)
UPDATED 5:40 p.m. | “A lottery by robbery” was behind a 2018 shooting that killed three men and left a 4-year old boy paralyzed, a prosecutor said in closing remarks Monday in the triple homicide trial of Sydney Mays.
Mays, 24, of Bloomington, is charged with murder in the deaths of Nate Pena and Corey Jackson, both 22, and Juan Carlos Perez, 33. He also faces attempted murder charges for causing injuries that left Pena’s young son paralyzed. Perez was shot in a stairwell after he came from a neighboring apartment to investigate the gunfire.
Before he went to Pena’s apartment on June 18, 2018, Mays saw a Snapchat photo of piles of cash posted by Jackson, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Erika Reynolds. All three men were known drug dealers, said the prosecutor. They also were known to have guns.