Woman who participated in livestreamed attack sentenced for violating probation
One of the four defendants who participated in the January 2017 attack on a Crystal Lake teen that was streamed live on social media pleaded guilty Tuesday to violating her probation, according to a Cook County state's attorney spokeswoman.
Police charged Brittany Covington, 20, with the violation in May after authorities said someone logged onto Facebook using her cellphone in violation of the judge's order.
In exchange for pleading guilty to the probation violation, Covington was resentenced to the terms of her original negotiated plea: four years of probation, 200 hours of community service and an order to refrain from social media for four years. She received the sentence in December 2017 after she pleaded guilty to a hate crime and aggravated battery with intent to disseminate on video.
Jordan Hill, 20, a former Carpentersville resident described as the victim's friend; Tesfaye Cooper, 20, a former Hoffman Estates High School student; Covington and her sister Tanishia Covington, 25 were charged with a racially tinged attack on the then-18-year-old man who was bound and gagged, threatened, punched, slapped, lacerated with a knife and forced to drink toilet water between Dec. 31, 2016, and Jan. 2, 2017, at Covington's Chicago apartment.
Hill was sentenced to eight years and Cooper was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated kidnapping and a hate crime. Tanishia Covington was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to the same charges.