An 18-year-old man was sentenced to 35 years in prison Thursday for the murder of a 311 operator near the Chicago Police headquarters on the South Side.
Javion Harris was 16 on the May 2016 afternoon when he began firing shots at another man near a busy intersection of South State Street. Harris shot a 19-year-old man, and struck and killed 49-year-old Yvonne Nelson as she walked out of a Starbucks.
Harris was convicted of murder and attempted murder at a jury trial in December.
Cook County Judge Maura Slattery Boyle said the sentence reflected the pain caused by the death of a “completely innocent” woman in Nelson, and the danger posed to other bystanders when Harris opened fire near the Illinois Institute of Technology, Leo High School and the police department.
“(This was) a Friday afternoon. Broad daylight. A university right there, a high school right there, police headquarters,” Slattery Boyle said, describing the deadly shooting. “(Harris was) running down the street discharging a handgun and killing a woman getting a cup of coffee, just going about her day.”
Harris, who had initially been charged in juvenile court, showed little reaction as the judge handed down the sentence. He looked over his shoulder and smiled to family members in the courtroom gallery as he was led out of the courtroom.
