MT VERNON — The Fifth District Appellate court affirmed the conviction of a former East St. Louis man, who was charged in the Easter Sunday 2016 shootings near Belleville.
In its 16-page order issued Jan. 30, the Illinois Fifth District Appellate Court three-justice panel ruled that the St. Clair County Circuit Court did not abuse its discretion when it sentenced the defendant, Randi D. Johnson, in the shooting.
The appellate court disagreed with Johnson that the lower court "did not give adequate weight to the mitigating evidence" and that "the record demonstrates that the court in fact did consider the mitigating evidence.".
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Justice Milton S. Wharton wrote the ruling with Justice Judy Cates and Justice Mark M. Boie concurring.
The case is rooted in the Easter 2016 shootings at the 1900 block of Chevy Drive off Green Mount Road, closer to Belleville's east side. Johnson allegedly fired shots at one man, whom he missed, and then into a vehicle being driven by a man and his pregnant girlfriend, both of whom were struck and injured, according to the background provided in the appellate ruling.
In January of the following year, Johnson was convicted in St. Clair County Circuit Court of two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm. Johnson was sentenced to 12 years for each of those aggravated battery charges and eight years for the aggravated discharge charge.
Johnson, now 33, is being held at the minimum security correction center in Taylorville, according to an online inmate search. His projected parole date is Feb. 26, 2027, and his projected discharge day is Feb. 26, 2030.
In his appeal, Johnson argued that the trial court abused its discretion in imposing the sentences because the court failed to give adequate consideration to evidence in mitigation, according to the appellate court ruling.
The appellate court justices did not agree.
"The defendant's sentences are all closer to the lower ends of these ranges than to the upper ends," Wharton wrote. "As such, we cannot agree with the defendant that these sentences are excessive."