Kankakee Felon Sentenced To Maximum Prison Term For Possession Of A Firearm Used In Shooting

Urbana, Ill. B Sentray D. Coney, 25, of the 700 block of South Lincoln Ave., Kankakee, Ill., has been sentenced to the maximum 10 years in federal prison for illegal possession of a firearm by a felon. At sentencing, yesterday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Harold A. Baker found that on May 19, 2014, Coney, a convicted felon, used a firearm to shoot a victim in the leg in Kankakee as retaliation for a tavern shooting earlier that morning. The 120 month sentence is the maximum permitted by law for the offense of conviction. On Sept. 5, 2014, Coney pled guilty to the offense. He has been in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest in May 2014.

According to court records and documents, Kankakee police officers arrested Coney in the early morning of May 19, 2014, at 3:15 a.m. Officers were conducting an investigation of a shooting death at the Whatever Tavern in Kankakee when they heard multiple gunshots from a nearby location. The victim was walking in the alley near a residence at the 300 block of East Bourbonnais St, Kankakee, when he was shot. A bullet remained lodged in the victim’s leg and he was taken to a hospital emergency room for treatment.

Following the second shooting, officers observed a dark blue, full size GMC van driving very fast in the area with no headlights. An officer in a squad car attempted to stop the van by getting behind the van and activating his overhead squad lights near the intersection of East Station St. and S. Schuyler Ave.  An officer in another squad car pulled in front of the van. As the van came to a stop, the passenger side door opened, and Coney jumped from the van.  Officers observed a gun in Coney’s right hand as he ran north on Schuyler Ave., and gave chase. As Coney continued to run, officers saw him drop the gun on the sidewalk in front of Johnny’s Pizza. Officers caught and tackled Coney and arrested him.

Officers recovered the gun Coney dropped, a black, Beretta, Model 92FS, nine millimeter, semi-automatic pistol. The pistol had a round in the chamber, the hammer cocked back, and the safety off.  The pistol contained an extended magazine loaded with approximately 12 additional rounds of 9 millimeter ammunition.

After Coney was arrested, officers investigated the area where the victim had been shot, and found nine 9 millimeter shell casings in the alley and yard where the shooting occurred. The 9 millimeter shell casings were sent to the forensic laboratory of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives which determined they were fired by the Beretta pistol that Coney dropped.  The Illinois State Police forensic lab analyzed swabs of Coney’s hands, taken at the Jerome Combs Detention Center following his arrest, and determined that both of Coney’s hands contained gunshot residue particles.

At the time of the offense, Coney had prior convictions in Illinois for domestic battery, possession of cannabis, and possession of a firearm by a street gang member.

The case is the result of ongoing investigations related to gun violence in the Kankakee area by the Kankakee Area Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Kankakee Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene L. Miller.