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Man sentenced in grisly death of Arlington Heights widower

A man who admitted to his role in the murder of an Arlington Heights widower was sentenced to 22 years in prison today, ending nearly four years of court proceedings that put three men behind bars.

Armon Braden, 24, is one of four defendants charged with first-degree murder in the April 12, 2011, slaying of George Nellessen, a 55-year-old widowed father who died at the hands of his son Matthew Nellessen, 23.

Jurors found Nellessen guilty in March 2014 of killing his father, who worked as a mold maker for Rexam in Buffalo Grove. They also found his actions to be brutal and heinous, which resulted in Cook County Judge Martin Agran sentencing Nellessen to life without parole in June 2014.

Agran, in sentencing Braden, called the crime "among the worst that I've ever been a party to."

Prosecutors say greed motivated Matthew Nellessen to strike his father in the head with a baseball bat while he was bound to a chair in the family room of his Wilshire Lane home. After determining that his father was still alive, Matthew Nellessen stabbed him in the neck with a kitchen knife, killing him.

Earlier, Matthew Nellessen and co-defendant Marlon Green, 24, forced the elder Nellessen to supply information about his financial accounts and sign a $100,000 check payable to his son.

Matthew Nellessen had met Green during an earlier stint at Cook County Jail and sought his help to take money from his father. Green in turn enlisted his friend Armon Braden, who supplied a pellet gun used to intimidate George Nellessen. Green agreed to testify against Nellessen in a plea deal with prosecutors. He was sentenced in December to 22 years in prison.

Agran acknowledged that Braden never attacked the victim and that he "took off very quickly" once the beating started.

"While you are unquestionably guilty of felony murder and robbery, you had no contemplation that a murder took place," Agran said.

Cook County prosecutors dismissed charges against the fourth defendant, Azari Braden, 23. Prosecutors say he drove his brother Armon and Green to Nellessen's house but never entered the residence.

Armon Braden, who received credit for more than 3½ years he has spent at Cook County Jail, did not speak during the hearing. His mother and brother declined to comment.

Agran noted that Braden will be in his early forties when he is released, "still time for a productive life ahead," he said.

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George Nellessen
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