A 21-year-old man who, according to his attorney, was ”tagging along”
with an older brother on a trip that resulted in the robbery and slaying of a New York man in Du Page County has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.
Shawn Koontz of Windham, Me., was sentenced Wednesday by Circuit Judge Ronald B. Mehling for forgery, concealing a homicide and possessing a stolen vehicle.
Koontz`s brother Aaron, 22, is awaiting trial on charges of murder, forgery and possessing a stolen vehicle.
According to testimony at Shawn`s Koontz`s trial, the brothers were hitchhiking from Maine to Seattle to evade prosecution for burglary in Maine in June 1991.
James Kinsey, 45, a minister from Lockport, N.Y., who occasionally worked as a prison guard, picked them up near his home.
Shawn Koontz said in a taped statement to police played during the trial that his brother told him he had intended to kill Kinsey and use his van, credit cards and money to continue their trip to Seattle.
Aaron Koontz is accused of strangling Kinsey in a Naperville motel room on June 6, 1991. Police said the two brothers dumped the body in a nearby field before driving around the Aurora area for a few days in Kinsey`s van to visit friends.
Police have said Aaron Koontz used Kinsey`s credit cards to buy jewelry and other items and to buy bus tickets to Seattle.
Surveyors found Kinsey`s body in December. Aaron Koontz was arrested in New Jersey a month later, and Shawn Koontz was arrested in February in Florida.
Michael Wolfe, the assistant Du Page County state`s attorney who prosecuted the case along with John Kennedy, asked the judge to impose a prison term of 10 years. Koontz`s attorney, Assistant Public Defender John Swain, said that considering Koontz has no prior convictions, he should be placed on probation.
”He was obviously not the leader. He was tagging along with his older brother,” Swain said.
