Getaway driver for man who shot and killed honor roll pupil is sentenced to 42 years

The getaway driver within the 2013 deadly taking pictures of a Chicago highschool honor pupil who simply days earlier than her dying had carried out at President Barack Obama‘s second inauguration festivities was sentenced Tuesday to 42 years in jail. 

Kenneth Williams was convicted in 2018 of first-degree homicide within the taking pictures of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, whose dying led to a nationwide outcry about Chicago´s gun violence. Two different youngsters had been wounded within the taking pictures.

Prepare dinner County Circuit Choose Diana Kenworthy on Tuesday ordered Williams to serve 35 years for the homicide conviction and 7 extra years for aggravated battery.

Williams was driving the evening Micheail Ward shot Pendleton within the again whereas she and her pals had been taking shelter from the rain in a park on the South Facet of Chicago,

Pendleton was an honor roll pupil at King School Prep Excessive Faculty and was killed simply over per week after she returned from Washington, the place she had carried out as a majorette along with her college band at President Barack Obama’s inauguration festivities.

The scene of the taking pictures is a couple of mile from the previous president’s dwelling in Kenwood on Chicago’s South Facet.

Kenneth Williams, who drove the getaway automotive within the 2013 deadly taking pictures of 15-year outdated Hadiya Pendleton, was handed a 42-year sentence on Tuesday

She was killed simply over per week after she returned from Washington, the place she had carried out as a majorette along with her highschool band at President Barack Obama’s inauguration festivities

Throughout Williams protection, he denied his position within the taking pictures and once more claimed that he had been ‘misjudged’ by the jury. He’s pictured in courtroom in 2018

Ward and Williams had been arrested on the day of Pendleton´s funeral, a service attended by then-first woman Michelle Obama. Beneath questioning by investigators, Ward initially admitted to being the shooter and stated he had acted on Williams´ orders.

Choose Kenworthy stated Williams was greater than only a getaway driver.

 ‘They had been on the lookout for folks to shoot.’ the choose stated.

Shooter Ward was handed an 84-year sentence in January 2019, 5 months after he was convicted of homicide and aggravated battery within the killing. 

Ward testified that he was ordered to fireplace on a gaggle of younger folks, together with Pendleton, whom he believed had been members of a rival gang. Pendleton’s story being emblematic of Chicago’s gang violence when she was caught within the crossfire of a gang feud she had nothing to do with. 

Driver Williams was discovered responsible of first-degree homicide by a separate jury across the identical time as Ward.

Nevertheless, he stalled his sentencing after a bid final September to throw out the jury’s verdict, which was unsuccessful. 

Williams claimed that his lawyer was ineffective and that one juror was dishonest about her connection to him, in response to a Chicago Tribune article printed on the time.

William’s protection lawyer stated that one juror had labored as a youth coordinator in a public housing constructing the place he and Ward lived. The juror by no means talked about such data and William’s lawyer did not tackle it when Williams stated he acknowledged the girl.

Pendleton (pictured) was shot within the again whereas she and her pals had been taking shelter from the rain in a park on the South Facet of Chicago

The shooter, Micheail Ward was handed an 84-year sentence in January 2019

However prosecutors argued that the Williams was 12 when the juror labored on the youth housing constructing and that she oversaw a whole lot of youngsters. She additionally signed an affidavit saying she had no private reminiscence of Williams.

Assistant State’s Lawyer Brian Holmes stated that even when she did acknowledge him, it would not imply she had motive to be bias in opposition to him.   

William’s protection attorneys additionally argued that his trial lawyer, Matthew McQuaid, did not cross-examine witnesses and impeded his means to file any future attraction.

Within the months main as much as his Tuesday sentencing, Williams repeatedly requested to take away his protection totally and characterize himself, the Chicago Tribune reported. He defined that he subscribes to the sovereign residents’ motion, a gaggle that believes particular person residents are unbiased of the authority of federal and state governments.

Kenworthy ordered a health care provider with the county’s forensic medical providers to find out if Williams was match to characterize himself, the Chicago Tribune reported. The physician discovered that Williams was competent sufficient to characterize himself.

Pendleton’s mom Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton instructed Williams on the sentencing that he was only a accountable for Pendleton’s dying as the person who pulled the set off. She is pictured on the listening to on July 20

Pendleton’s brother Nathaniel Pendleton Jr. stated on the sentencing that he’s ‘perpetually scarred’ by the lack of his sister. He’s pictured on the listening to on July 20

Throughout Williams protection, he denied his position within the taking pictures and once more claimed that he had been ‘misjudged’ by the jury. ‘I can’t take duty for one thing I had no intent, no lively participation and no inactive participation or no consciousness of,’ he stated, as reported by WTTW, a Chicago PBS affiliate.

He additionally addressed Pendleton’s household and stated, ‘It provides me deep disappointment to listen to the harm in y’all voice directed at me.’

Pendleton’s mom Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton and brother Nathaniel Pendleton Jr. instructed Williams on the sentencing that he was only a accountable for Pendleton’s dying as the person who pulled the set off, WTTW reported.

In a sufferer influence assertion on the sentencing, Cowley-Pendleton stated, ‘Kenneth you’re liable for a lot disappointment, harm and melancholy. We have all needed to recreate our lives, discover ways to breathe, suppose, talk and performance. It has been hell.’

Nathaniel stated, ‘I’m perpetually scarred by the lack of my sister. She is now gone perpetually because of the actions made by Kenneth Williams. He can get visits from his household. My household has to go to a grave.’

Kenworthy acknowledged in her ruling that Williams was greater than only a getaway driver, in response to the Chicago Solar-Instances, and stated he ‘was not taken without warning. [He and Ward] had been on the lookout for folks to shoot.’

Williams had confronted a sentence of between 26 and 90 years throughout Tuesday’s listening to, however prosecutors stated they weren’t in search of the utmost penalty on this case.

Assistant State’s Lawyer Brian Holmes made clear that the sentence would set a precedent to carry different getaway drivers complicit when they’re concerned in crimes, in response to WTTW.

Ward beforehand testified that he was ordered to fireplace on a gaggle of younger folks, together with Pendleton, whom he believed had been members of a rival gang. He’s pictured in courtroom in 2018

Prepare dinner County Circuit Choose Diana Kenworthy acknowledged in her ruling that Williams was greater than only a getaway driver and stated he ‘was not taken without warning’ by the taking pictures

‘Let the phrase go forth from this courtroom that if you happen to assist, encourage or drive the getaway automotive, level out and choose the victims for a shooter or assist the shooter in any means, and then you definately brag about it to your mates . . . you’ll get caught,’ he stated. ‘You’ll be tried, you’ll be convicted and you’ll be sentenced severely.’

Pendleton’s dying left a legacy past the Chicago neighborhood. Former first woman Michelle Obama attended her funeral and Obama addressed the taking pictures throughout his State of the Union tackle in 2013, citing it as a motive he was pushing for stronger gun management legal guidelines.

In the meantime, Williams’s sentencing comes the day after Senator Kristen Gillibrand and Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams re-introduced the Hadiya Pendleton and Nyasia Pryear-Yard Gun Trafficking & Crime Prevention Act, which is able to make gun trafficking throughout state traces a federal crime. It did not go when it was first launched in 2013.

Along with commemorating Pendleton, the invoice’s title additionally references Nyasia Pryear-Yard, who was killed by gunfire in 2009 when a gang dispute broke out at an occasion she attended in Brooklyn. She was 17.