A 60-year sentence for Jim McPherson, convicted last fall of killing 18-year-old Janay McFarlane in North Chicago, has been upheld by a Lake County Circuit Court judge.
On Thursday, Judge George Strickland denied a motion by defense attorney James Schwarzbach to reconsider the sentence handed down earlier this month.
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The fairly routine motion and ruling paves the way for a potential state-level appeal. Strickland on Thursday also approved the appointment of an appeals attorney for McPherson.
McPherson, 22, of North Chicago, had faced a sentencing range of 45 to 85 years in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder by a jury in November for shooting McFarlane on Feb. 15, 2013, in a North Chicago alley.
On the same day of the shooting, McFarlane’s 14-year-old sister was sitting near President Barack Obama at an anti-gun violence rally in Chicago.
McFarlane, of Chicago, was in North Chicago visiting friends when she was shot shortly after 11:20 p.m. while walking with two friends in an alley behind Jackson Street.
The case was prosecuted by assistant state’s attorney’s Ari Fisz and Jason Grindel, who said one of the men McFarlane was walking with was considered a rival gang member by McPherson. The prosecutors said McPherson saw the group McFarlane was with in a liquor store minutes before the shooting, and then ambushed them in the alley, about a block away.
During the trial, police gang experts testified that McPherson is a member of the Gangster Disciples, a claim that Schwarzbach conceded is true, although he denied it was a factor in the case.
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