Man who fired gun while threatening woman gets 25 years in prison

A man with a violent criminal history was sentenced to 25 years in prison this week after his 2015 conviction for firing two shots while threatening a woman in Carpentersville with a gun he was not allowed to possess.

A Kane County jury in February convicted Chad W. Conway, 40, formerly of Carpentersville and now of Roscoe, Illinois, of armed habitual criminal and possession of a weapon by a felon, according to prosecutors and court records.

Conway was eligible for an extended term of up to 60 years in prison because of his previous criminal history, which prosecutors said included cocaine delivery, aggravated battery, domestic battery, unlawful possession of a weapon, battery and aggravated assault.

In a trial this year, prosecutors presented evidence that at 3:30 a.m. March 21, 2015, Conway went to a house on the 1700 block of Papoose Road in Carpentersville where a woman and two children were inside and placed a .357 Ruger Blackhawk revolver and wad of cash on a kitchen table.

The victim, who is the mother of the children, put the gun in a drawer, told Conway to leave and took $20 for her troubles, prosecutors said. But Conway took the gun, fired it into a kitchen wall and demanded the money back.

The victim instead took another $20 for damage to the wall, prompting Conway to fire another shot into the kitchen wall, prosecutors said.

Conway then grabbed the woman by her throat, put the gun to her forehead, dragged her into a couch and called for her children to "come watch your mother die," prosecutors said.

Conway did not shoot and eventually left the house, and the woman called police.

Prosecutors said both bullets went through the kitchen wall. No one was injured.

Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon said 25 years in an "appropriate sentence" for Conway.

"This defendant has shown time and time again that he is a violent and career criminal. The community is safer with him

in prison," McMahon said.

Under state law, Conway must serve 85 percent, or about 21 years, of the sentence issued Tuesday by Judge Linda Abrahamson.

Conway gets credit for about four years and two months toward his sentence while being held at the Kane County jail while the case was pending.