An Ingleside man sentenced to 30 years in prison for the 2010 stabbing death of a Libertyville 19-year-old had his sentence significantly reduced Monday in Lake County Circuit Court.
James Lewis, 47, had been convicted of first-degree murder by a jury in June 2012, but an Illinois Appellate Court ruled that the jury should have convicted him of second-degree murder. The decision led to a resentencing hearing Monday before Judge George Bridges, who previously handed down the 30-year term for first-degree murder.
Based on the appellate court ruling, Bridges resentenced Lewis to 18 years under the second-degree murder standard, which caps prison time at 20 years.
The new sentence will be served at 50 percent and Lewis has already received credit for 1,850 days in Lake County Jail and the Illinois Department of Corrections. That means he will likely be released in four to five years, prosecutors said. His 30-year sentence was to be served at 100 percent under first-degree murder sentencing statutes.
John Herres of Libertyville had just finished obtaining the credits he needed to graduate from high school and was planning to become a Marine when he was stabbed in the abdomen by Lewis on Feb. 14, 2010.
According to authorities, Lewis stabbed Herres after a dispute arose over a small amount of marijuana Lewis allegedly had sold Herres and a small group of people. The stabbing occurred at a residence in unincorporated Lake County near routes 134 and 12.
Herres died later that day at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.
The appellate court found no legal errors in the original trial, but overruled the jury’s finding of first-degree murder in the case.
According to prosecutors, Lewis was drunk at the time of the murder. At his 2012 sentencing hearing, his former defense attorney, Christopher Lombardo, said Lewis had been an alcoholic throughout his adult life.
In a statement to the court Monday, Lewis said he had been living a life of “selfishness and alcohol consumption.”
“I am a changed person,” Lewis said after profusely apologizing to Harres’ family.
He said that once he is released, he plans to use his life “to shine light on people who may need help.”
Bridges, while stating the seriousness of the crime Lewis committed, noted that many people sentenced to 30 years in prison would “give up all hope and rebel.”
“You didn’t,” Bridges said, noting that Lewis had no behavioral citations while being held in one of the state’s toughest prisons.
Assistant state’s attorneys Matt DeMartini and Fred Day represented the state at the resentencing hearing. Lewis was represented by attorney Jeff Facklam of the Public Defender’s Office, because Lombardo is now a judge.
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