EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — A judge handed down a 32-year prison term to a Granite City man Monday for the murder of a Madison teen in 2020.
According to a press release from the Office of the State’s Attorney in Madison County, Nicholas Rickman III, 18, received a decades-long sentence in connection with the fatal shooting of Sean D. Williams, 18.
A co-defendant, Deandre Richardson, 19, previously pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
At trial, assistant state’s attorneys Morgan Hudson and Katie Warren showed evidence and testimony showing that Rickman and Williams were friends, but Rickman lured Williams to the home to rob him of marijuana and money. The prosecutors showed evidence that Rickman tried to hide from police in the days after the killing by turning off his phone and shaving his hair.
In a victim-impact statement to the court, Sean’s grandfather, Harold Wilson Sr., said Sean was a singer who had been offered a recording contract. As a backup plan, he was considering enlistment with the Air Force, as an uncle had done. Sean was recalled as helpful and loving to his family.
“Sean’s murder has been devastating on our entire family,” Harold Wilson Sr. said. Sean’s mother, Shawndell Williams, also gave a victim-impact statement, and said her faith has allowed her to find forgiveness.
“I’ve suffered, yet survived one of the most traumatic hardships of my life with the loss of my youngest son,” Shawndell Williams said.
State’s Attorney Thomas Haine said understandably, for the family and loved ones of Sean, no sentence could possibly feel adequate.
“Their loss is immeasurable,” Haine said. “Yet I hope that this conviction and sentence will help them begin to heal.”
The maximum sentence available in this case was 40 years in prison, due to Rickman being 16 at the time of the offense.
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