{"id":29206,"date":"2026-01-29T11:25:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=29206"},"modified":"2026-01-29T11:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:25:37","slug":"grayson-gets-maximum-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/29206-grayson-gets-maximum-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"Grayson Gets Maximum Sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><b>Sean Grayson receives maximum sentence for murder of Sonya Massey<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Former Sangamon County deputy was convicted of second-degree murder<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Editor\u2019s note: This story was originally published by the Illinois Times and republished with permission.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By DEAN OLSEN <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Illinois Times\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Sangamon County judge on Thursday gave former Sangamon County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Sean Grayson the maximum sentence \u2014 20 years in prison \u2014 for the July 2024 murder of Sonya Massey, culminating a nationally publicized case that led to ongoing discussions and action locally to bridge racial divides.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A cheer went up in the courtroom and Donna Massey, Sonya\u2019s mother, said, \u201cThank you God, thank you God,\u201d as the hearing concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But after the decision by Circuit Judge Ryan Cadagin, Sean Grayson could end up serving less than half of that time in prison. That\u2019s because a Peoria County jury on Oct. 29 found the 31-year-old Riverton resident, originally charged with first-degree murder after the shooting death of Massey, 36, in her Woodside Township home, guilty of the lesser offense of second-degree murder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grayson, who is white, killed Massey, a Black, unarmed single mother of two teenagers, in a rapidly progressing confrontation over Grayson\u2019s fear that Massey would harm him with a pot of hot water from the stove of her kitchen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grayson\u2019s profanity-laced comments toward Massey, her soft-spoken yet firm comment, \u201cI rebuke you in the name of Jesus,\u201d and Grayson\u2019s fatal shot to Massey\u2019s head were all captured on police-worn body camera video footage of the exchange. The footage went viral on the internet and was played to the jury at trial.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grayson would have been ensured a prison sentence of 45 years to life if convicted of first-degree murder because of enhancements related to the use of a gun and state law requiring that defendants serve 100% of a sentence for certain crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The jury decided that Grayson\u2019s actions met the legal standard for first-degree murder but that his belief he was acting in self-defense \u2014 even though that belief was unreasonable \u2014 was a mitigating factor justifying a finding of second-degree murder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With time already served behind bars and because the second-degree charge allows the sentence to be reduced by half for good behavior, Grayson could be released in about 8\u00bd years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The jury decided that Grayson, who was dispatched to Massey\u2019s home after she called 911 when she suspected a prowler in the neighborhood, shot Massey, who had been dealing with chronic mental illnesses, under the misguided belief that he needed to act in self-defense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cadagin denied Grayson\u2019s request for a new trial after Grayson\u2019s lawyers, Dan Fultz and Mark Wykoff, argued, among other things, that the judge erred in allowing the jury of nine women and three men to hear Grayson\u2019s disparaging remarks about Massey after the shooting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Massey\u2019s death, and the ensuing protests in Springfield and in other cities, led to the formation locally of the Massey Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The citizen group recently finalized a range of recommendations for improving relations with the public and the police, boosting services for people with mental illnesses, and reducing economic disparities between Blacks and whites.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sean Grayson receives maximum sentence for murder of Sonya Massey Former Sangamon County deputy was convicted of second-degree murder Editor\u2019s note: This story was originally published by the Illinois Times [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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