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Article updated: 5/14/2013 5:00 PM
Sentence handed down in 1st televised trial in Illinois
A Kankakee man has received a 78-year prison sentence in a case that was the first Illinois trial to feature live, gavel-to-gavel TV coverage.
Kankakee County judge Clark Erickson sentenced 21-year-old Demetrious Jones on Tuesday. Jones was convicted in October of the 2011 shooting death of 27-year-old Marcus Sanders. The Daily Journal in Kankakee reported that Jones declined to make a statement and stretched and yawned during the sentencing hearing.
The victim’s mother, Glenda Sanders, said she and her family “are finally at peace.” Jones’ defense attorney asked for the minimum sentence of 71 years. Prosecutors sought 100 years.
Jones’ trial was part of an ongoing Illinois Supreme Court experiment to lift camera bans in select courts.
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