DANVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A 29-year-old man has been convicted of first-degree murder in three Danville killings that authorities say were over stolen drugs and money.
Jurors spent just over three hours deliberating Tuesday before deciding that Jerome Harris of Danville was guilty in the March 2007 shootings of 30-year-old Rodney Pepper of Chicago, and 21-year-old Ta’Breyon McCullough and 19-year-old Madisen Leverenz, both of Danville.
Harris faces a mandatory life sentence. He is already serving 25 years in state prison for drug-related crimes.
According to Assistant State’s Attorney Sandy Lawlyes, Pepper and Leverenz were hiding a large amount of cocaine they stole from McCullough, part of which had been sold for $12,000. McCullough had agreed to keep the drugs for her boyfriend, a drug dealer named Freddell L. Bryant from Chicago.
McCullough searched for Leverenz and found her, along with Pepper, at Pepper’s apartment the morning of March 25, 2007, Lawlyes said. The killers arrived a short time later.
“And (the victims are) found dead by 10 o’clock,” Lawlyes said.
Bryant was convicted of murder in the killings in 2012. He is serving three consecutive life sentences.
Defense attorney Jacqueline Lacy conceded Harris is a drug dealer.
“But there’s a difference between being a drug dealer and a murderer, and Jerome Harris is not a murderer,” said Lacy, who argued her client was elsewhere selling drugs at the time of the shootings.
After the verdict, Leverenz’s father, Mac Leverenz, said the killings had forever scarred his family.
“We’ll never get over it,” he said. He and his wife now raise Madison Leverenz’s 8-year-old daughter.
But McCullough’s grandmother said the verdict will help ease her pain.
“It’s the beginning of the process of healing,” Bonne Derrickson-Beecher said.
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