A judge in east-central Illinois has handed down a 40-year sentence for a Champaign man convicted in the fatal shooting of a man gunned down while with his wife and children.
Prosecutors had asked Judge Harry Clem to impose the maximum 60-year sentence, while defense attorneys had argued for a lesser sentence for 20-year-old Demarco Taylor.
Taylor was convicted in June of first-degree murder for his part in the 2008 death of 34-year-old James Ellis.
Prosecutors contend a man still awaiting trial shot Ellis, but they say Taylor was present and also had a gun when Ellis was killed.