PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois jury has begun deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of a sheriff’s deputy who shot Sonya Massey, a Black woman in her home who had called 911 for help and was later killed because of the way she was handling a pan of hot water.
The eight-woman, four-man jury received the case just after 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Jurors must decide whether Sean Grayson, 31, is guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Massey in her Springfield home. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 45 years to life in prison. They also have been given the option of considering second-degree murder, which carries a term of four to 20 years.
Grayson and another deputy answered Massey’s emergency call reporting a prowler outside the 36-year-old woman’s home early on the morning of July 6, 2024.
In closing arguments, prosecutors characterized Grayson as “an angry man with a gun” whose impatience with Massey, who was suffering a mental health episode, inflamed his temper.
Defense attorneys argued that when Massey retrieved a pot of steaming water from the stove, Grayson gave clear commands to drop it. They said he only fired when she said, “ I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” and, in the ensuing confusion, picked up the pan again and acted as if she would throw it and scald him.
Massey’s killing raised new questions about U.S. law enforcement shootings of Black people in their homes. The accompanying publicity, protests and legal action over the incident prompted Judge Ryan Cadagin to move the trial from Springfield, 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, to Peoria, an hour’s drive north of the capital city, because of pre-trial publicity.
In an unusual step for a defendant in a murder case, Grayson testified in his own defense. Grayson said he considered using a Taser to subdue her but was afraid it wouldn’t work given his distance from Massey and the counter separating them. He said he determined that Massey was a threat and drew his 9 mm pistol only after she uttered her “rebuke” twice — although prosecutors pointed out that was because he didn’t hear her the first time and asked her to repeat it.
Second-degree murder applies when there is a “serious provocation” which causes “a reasonable person to become impassioned or if an incident can be characterized as ”imperfect self-defense,” in which defendants believe their actions are justified even if that belief is unreasonable.
