PHOTO COURTESY SANGAMON COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT
Sean Grayson, a former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy, was indicted July 17, 2024, on first-degree homicide expenses within the July 6 capturing dying of Sonya Massey.
The trial of Sean Grayson, who’s charged with first-degree homicide in the July 6 dying of Sonya Massey, must be moved exterior Sangamon County as a result of pretrial publicity would bias potential jurors, Grayson’s attorneys argued in court docket paperwork filed Feb. 26.
“The print and digital information media protection regarding the dying of Sonya Massey has been intensive nationally and worldwide, however particularly in the local people,” Springfield protection attorneys Daniel Fultz and Mark Wykoff wrote within the request to Circuit Decide Ryan Cadagin.
The case “has subjected Sangamon County to unprecedented media consideration from native, regional, nationwide and world information sources,” in keeping with the submitting. “There even have been intensive neighborhood feedback surrounding this case. Just about everyone seems to be conscious of and has an opinion on the matter and has mentioned the case with fellow neighborhood members.”
On this “emotionally charged ambiance, it’s affordable to conclude that the neighborhood’s widespread engagement has made it nearly unattainable to empanel a good and neutral jury in Sangamon County,” Grayson’s attorneys wrote of their movement.
It’s unknown when Cadagin will rule on the change of venue request, or the place in Illinois Grayson’s trial could be held if the request is granted. A agency begin date for Grayson’s trial hasn’t been set and is a minimum of a number of months away.
If the trial had been moved to a different county, jurors could be chosen from residents of that county. Cadigan, who has to date denied information media requests for cameras within the courtroom throughout proceedings on the case, would stay the decide, and the prosecuting and protection attorneys wouldn’t change.
Grayson, 30, a white Riverton resident and former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy, is proven on police body-worn video capturing Massey, a 36-year-old Black girl, within the face in her Woodside Township house at about 1:30 a.m. July 6.
He has pleaded not responsible to expenses of homicide, official misconduct and aggravated battery with a firearm.
Grayson and one other Sangamon County deputy had been dispatched to Massey’s house after she referred to as 911 and stated she suspected a prowler in her neighborhood in unincorporated Woodside Township, a couple of blocks exterior of considered one of Springfield’s southern borders.
The killing of Massey kindled a firestorm of debate regionally and nationally about police brutality regionally and nationally.
Massey, who reportedly was coping with schizophrenia and paranoia, stood 5 ft 1 inches tall and weighed about 110 kilos. She was unarmed and in her nightgown within the kitchen of her one-story house when she was shot by Grayson, who stood 6 ft 3 inches tall and weighed about 230 kilos.
The viral bodycam video confirmed Grayson utilizing profanities and saying he feared that Massey would possibly splash boiling water on him a couple of seconds earlier than he fired three photographs at her.
In obvious response to Grayson’s impression that she supposed to hurt him with the new water, Massey says, “I rebuke you within the identify of Jesus,” shortly earlier than Grayson fires.
One of many bullets from Grayson’s gun hit Massey within the face, inflicting a deadly harm.
The dying of Massey, a single mom of two youngsters, is spoken about by members of the Black Lives Matter motion in the identical breath with different high-profile deaths of Black folks by the hands of police, reminiscent of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Laquan McDonald and Michael Brown.
The Massey case led to the retirement of former sheriff Jack Campbell amid public criticism that the Republican workplace holder missed or neglected a number of “pink flags” in Grayson’s previous. These pink flags included two prior DUI convictions and allegations of unethical habits when Grayson labored as an officer on the Logan County Sheriff’s Division and Kincaid Police Division.
The case led to the shapeation of the citizen-led Massey Fee, which is finding out methods of bettering native policing and making suggestions to policymakers in Sangamon County and statewide.
Grayson’s attorneys famous that he’s a lifelong resident of Sangamon County, graduated from North Mac Excessive College in Virden and served in legislation enforcement in each Virden and Pawnee, amongst different companies.
“Each Sonya Massey and Sean Grayson are well-known all through Sangamon County because of this incident,” the attorneys wrote.
Neighborhood consciousness of the case is mirrored in a GoFundMe account titled, “Justice for Sonya Massey,” that was created by Massey’s father, James Wilburn, and has raised greater than $528,000, Grayson’s attorneys stated.
The Jefferson Bridge in Springfield is scheduled to be renamed the Massey Memorial Bridge and is the location of a mural of Massey and the slogan, “Say Her Title,” the attorneys stated.
The attorneys’ submitting stated publicity in regards to the case additionally has included the Sangamon County Board’s current approval of a $10 million settlement with the Massey household earlier than a wrongful dying lawsuit had ever been filed, and a Wikipedia web page titled, “Killing of Sonya Massey.”
“Sangamon County is a comparatively small, carefully knit neighborhood,” the submitting stated, “and the circumstances surrounding this case have led to an amazing and emotional response from its residents, a lot of whom have participated in plenty of public protests, marches or different public expressions of assist for Sonya Massey.”
The submitting added: “The Sangamon County neighborhood has clearly taken a stance on the query of Defendant Grayson’s guilt. The one technique to overcome the intensive protection and neighborhood data of inadmissible data on this case is to switch it to a county the place publicity to such protection has been restricted.”
