PEORIA, Ill. – A Peoria man got the maximum when being sentenced in connection with a shooting in March of 2021 that seriously injured a man.
Peoria County State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos called it a “tumultuous” sentencing hearing in a news release, but one that gave David Dillard, Jr., 27, 30 years in prison Thursday, after a jury convicted him in April of Aggravated Battery, Aggravated Discharge of a Firearm, and Possession of a Weapon by a Felon.
Anthony Thomas, 29, was shot in the back in the head at Laramie Liquors in March of 2021 and left permanently blind by the shooting caught on surveillance video.
Thomas is suing the store and Dillard.
Hoos says the hearing was tumultuous because Dillard was allegedly so combative, he had to be removed from the courtroom at one point.
