Teen to be sentenced in Fayette Co. double killing

VANDALIA, — A southern Illinois teenager convicted of gunning down two of his neighbors as they slept is about to hear his punishment.

Sixteen-year-old Clifford Baker was to be sentenced Friday in Fayette County, where jurors deliberated three hours before convicting him Aug. 23.

Authorities say Baker was 15 when he fatally shot 60-year-old John Mahon and 53-year-old Debra Tish as they slept in their home in Loogootee. That’s a community of about two dozen people about 80 miles east of St. Louis.

After Baker shot the pair he entered a neighboring home where he punched a woman in the face while clutching a knife, opening a gash above her left eye.

Baker was arrested soon afterward by a sheriff’s deputy who subdued him with a stun gun.