A Chicago man received natural life in prison without parole in Marion County Court Monday afternoon for the first-degree murder of Precious Jones at her Centralia home.
Judge Allan Lolie said he had no other choice and the sentence was mandated by law since Patton had two other Class X convictions within the past 20 years.
Patton left the courtroom saying ‘I’m innocent’ and gave a statement in allocution noting he has proclaimed his innocence since day one and didn’t kill Jones. He said those who did have gone free and unpunished. Patton didn’t blame Jones’ family saying they had been told lies.
Just before Patton’s statement Jones’ daughter Tiera Campbell gave a victim impact statement. Facing Patton she told him sometimes through tears that he was not the judge and he didn’t have the right to take her life. Campbell said her heart was broken and could never be fixed. She then asked the judge to never let Patton walk the streets again.
Assistant State’s Attorney Melissa Doran was called to the stand by State’s Attorney Bill Milner to firm up Patton’s two prior Class X convictions. They were an armed robbery in 1999 and an aggravated vehicular hijacking in 2003.
After the sentencing hearing, Milner said he felt the murder case had a just ending.
“I’m very happy we got Mr. Patton sentenced to natural life without parole. You’ve reported on it, people have heard it, shooting a woman in her house with two babies present, and then stealing a TV,” said Milner. “He got a sentence the court felt was appropriate and required under the law.”
Patton was found guilty of the murder in September by a Marion County Court Jury. The jury was presented evidence that Jones had been shot once in the back and once in her chest on September 22nd, 2018 at her home on Anderson Street in Centralia.
