A 12-year prison sentence will stand for a Calumet Park man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a fatal house party shooting in Macomb, the Fourth District Appellate Court ruled this week.
Demond Wilson, Jr., who’s now 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Jerman Beathea, 26, of Chicago during the early morning hours of March 25, 2023.
Beathea was shot six times and was pronounced dead at the scene.
10 other people, including Wilson, were wounded in the shooting.
Wilson pleaded guilty in October 2023, and in January 2024, McDonough County Circuit Judge Nigel Graham sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
In his appeal, Wilson argued the sentence was excessive because the trial court improperly considered factors inherent in second degree murder, relied on speculation, and rejected pertinent mitigating factors including a lack of previous criminal history.
But the appellate justices disagreed. In a unanimous ruling, they upheld the sentence.
The justices said the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it rejected the mitigating factors. They also said Judge Graham, after witnessing Wilson’s demeanor in court, was well within his right to find Wilson was not sincere about feeling remorseful and paying restitution.
In the ruling, justices also said, “Moreover, given the defendant’s intoxication and the short time in which a verbal disagreement erupted into a shooting match, we cannot conclude the trial court abused its discretion when it found defendant’s criminal conduct was not unlikely to
recur.”
The justices said they found the offense egregious and could not conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in issuing the 12-year prison sentence.
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