Jury deliberations start in trial of Illinois deputy who killed Sonya Massey

PEORIA Ill AP An Illinois jury has begun deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of a sheriff s deputy who shot Sonya Massey a Black woman in her home who had called for help and was later killed because of the way she was handling a pan of hot water The eight-woman four-man jury received the affair just after a m Tuesday Jurors must decide whether Sean Grayson is guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Massey in her Springfield home If convicted he faces a sentence of years to life in prison They also have been given the option of considering second-degree murder which carries a term of four to years Grayson and another deputy answered Massey s exigency call reporting a prowler outside the -year-old woman s home early on the morning of July In closing arguments prosecutors characterized Grayson as an angry man with a gun whose impatience with Massey who was suffering a mental wellbeing episode inflamed his temper Defense attorneys argued that when Massey retrieved a pot of steaming water from the stove Grayson gave clear commands to drop it They explained he only fired when she announced I rebuke you in the name of Jesus and in the ensuing confusion picked up the pan again and acted as if she would throw it and scald him Massey s killing raised new questions about U S law enforcement shootings of Black people in their homes The accompanying publicity protests and legal action over the episode prompted Judge Ryan Cadagin to move the trial from Springfield miles kilometers southwest of Chicago to Peoria an hour s drive north of the capital city because of pre-trial publicity In an rare step for a defendant in a murder matter Grayson testified in his own defense Grayson announced he considered using a Taser to subdue her but was afraid it wouldn t work given his distance from Massey and the counter separating them He noted he determined that Massey was a threat and drew his mm pistol only after she uttered her rebuke twice although prosecutors pointed out that was because he didn t hear her the first time and petitioned her to repeat it Second-degree murder applies when there is a serious provocation which causes a reasonable person to become impassioned or if an case can be characterized as imperfect self-defense in which defendants believe their actions are justified even if that belief is unreasonable Source