SPRINGFIELD — Through sobs, Donna Massey told a packed Sangamon County courtroom on Thursday about the impact her daughter Sonya’s killing at the hands of a sheriff’s deputy had on her: short-term memory loss, inability to watch the news and a fear of calling police as she worried she would meet the same fate as her daughter.
As Massey concluded her victim-impact statement, she turned toward her daughter’s killer, former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, and spoke the same words Sonya Massey said to Grayson moments before the white deputy shot and killed the Black mother of two.
“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” Donna Massey sternly told Grayson from the witness stand.
Minutes later, Judge Ryan Cadagin sentenced Grayson to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder, the maximum penalty allowed under Illinois law and a rare, lengthy sentence for an on-duty police officer in the U.S. convicted of killing someone.
When the sentence was read, someone from the gallery shouted, “Yes!” and a woman’s voice could be heard softly saying, “Thank you, thank you, God.”
Grayson, 31, will be required to serve at least half of his sentence — 10 years — under state law, though he has already received credit for 561 days spent in custody. A post-trial hearing is scheduled for March 6.
Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser recommended the 20-year sentence, telling the court during the hearing, “If the max was more, we’d ask for more.”
Massey had called 911 to report a possible prowler near her house, just outside Illinois’ capital city. Instead of help, prosecutors argued, she encountered a deputy who escalated a routine call into a deadly confrontation.
“Sonya Massey called the police for help and instead of sending help, Sean Grayson showed up at her front door,” Milhiser said. “Send anyone else and Sonya Massey is alive today.”
The case, which resulted in protests across the country and renewed scrutiny of police violence against Black Americans, was propelled by graphic body-camera footage that showed Grayson fatally shooting Ms. Massey, a 36-year-old Black mother of two dealing with mental health challenges, inside her home in July 2024. After the incident, then-President Joe Biden said Massey’s slaying “reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not.”
Before sentencing, Grayson addressed the court, apologizing and asking for forgiveness. Speaking to Cadagin but referring to Massey’s family, he said: “I just hope that one day they would be forgiving.”
“I was very unprofessional that night,” Grayson continued somberly as he stood in the courtroom, handcuffed and clad in white-and-black-striped jail garb. “Your honor, I made a lot of mistakes that night. … I made terrible decisions that night. … I wish there was something I could do to bring her back.”
In addition to the video’s ubiquity, the case underscored law enforcement’s often imperfect hiring practices: Grayson had worked for five other law enforcement agencies before being hired by the Sangamon County sheriff’s office, even though a few of his previous employers had criticized his performance.
Grayson had initially been charged with first-degree murder. But the jury during his trial was allowed to consider convicting him of second-degree murder, which is a lesser charge.
The incident occurred July 6, 2024, after deputies responded to Massey’s 911 call. Inside her home, as Grayson spoke to Massey, the officer allowed her to move a pot of water heating on the stove, and she set it on a counter. Moments later, Grayson yelled at Massey over the pot and pulled his 9 mm pistol. Massey put her hands in the air, declared, “I’m sorry,” ducked for cover and was shot in the face.
Body camera footage from Grayson and his partner, Dawson Farley, was a central focus for Sangamon County prosecutors and Grayson’s defense team during his October 2025 trial.
Massey family members described a loss that could not be measured in years.
“I really do still need my mom,” her son Malachi Hill-Massey, 19, told the court. “My soul is ripped.”
Her father, James Wilburn, said the shooting was a failure not just of one officer but of a system that hired him, calling Grayson a “good ol’ boy type of hire.” He also called for federal prosecutors to charge Grayson with civil rights violations in connection with Massey’s death, in addition to his second-degree murder case, which is a state conviction.
“This injustice must not be allowed to stand,” Wilburn said, as his voice rose in anger. “He should be prosecuted federally!”
On Thursday, Mark Wykoff, one of Grayson’s lawyers, tried to push for a six-year prison sentence, arguing that one of the prosecutors’ expert witnesses during the trial said an officer in Grayson’s position could have concluded that Massey presented an “imminent threat” of harm. Wykoff added that Massey appeared to make a throwing motion with the pot prior to the shooting.
Wykoff also noted Grayson is a Stage 4 cancer patient after being diagnosed a few years ago with colon cancer that has since spread to at least his liver. The lawyer argued imprisonment would “absolutely, positively endanger his medical condition.”
But Cadagin, moments before handing down the sentence, said there’s no evidence to support Grayson’s treatment behind bars would be any different than in a community-based setting.
Aside from the body camera footage, prosecutors also centered on accusations that Grayson repeatedly failed to follow law enforcement policies or training. And they also focused on damaging testimony from Farley, suggesting Grayson didn’t do enough to help save Massey’s life after shooting her.
During the trial, Grayson’s lawyers tried to argue he killed Massey in self-defense.
In his opening statement to the mostly white jury, which included one Black man, Grayson’s attorney Daniel Fultz argued that someone would not reasonably think Grayson made up his mind to kill Massey when the officer went to her home. He also alluded to a point in the body camera footage when “she makes a comment along the lines of ‘don’t hurt me,’ and Grayson responds, ‘why would we hurt you?’”
From there, Fultz argued, the encounter quickly escalated into a situation in which Grayson needed to protect himself and his partner from the danger posed by the boiling water.
The trial occurred at the Peoria County Courthouse, some 75 miles from Massey’s home, amid concerns from Grayson’s defense team he wouldn’t be able to get a fair trial in Sangamon County because of the extensive media coverage of the killing in the Springfield area.
After Massey’s death, Grayson got fired, the Sangamon County sheriff at the time of the shooting, Jack Campbell, resigned, and attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci helped Massey’s family secure a $10 million settlement from Sangamon County.
Gov. JB Pritzker approved a measure requiring local and state law enforcement agencies in Illinois to be more transparent about former officers’ work histories when they seek employment with another police force in the state.
A local commission was also established in Massey’s name for community leaders to examine certain issues, including societal inequalities in minority neighborhoods, in the Springfield area.
Late last year, the Massey Commission issued a report to make a series of recommendations that included structural changes in the hiring practices, training and accountability mechanisms at the Sangamon County sheriff’s office and other law enforcement agencies within Springfield. It also emphasized antibias training.
Among other things in the report, the commission also called for a countywide mental health board and “integrated crisis response protocols” for residents experiencing mental health episodes.
In a statement after Thursday’s hearing, Romanucci and Crump said the sentence affirms that “no one is above the law.”
“Sonya Massey should be alive today. She was killed in her home by someone sworn to protect her,” they said in a statement.
Later in the morning, Wilburn renewed his call for federal intervention, even as the Trump administration has scaled back Justice Department civil rights investigations.
“The fact pattern doesn’t change,” he said. “If the United States Constitution says that you can be violated for someone’s civil rights, then they need to do it.”
