(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – A 44-year-old former Ottawa man has been sentenced to 76 years in state prison for trying to arrange the murders of several people, including a person he was accused of sexually assaulting, while he was being held behind bars.
A Will County jury last November found Christian L. Shepherd guilty of solicitation of murder and solicitation of murder for hire. The charges stemmed from a period that Shepherd was jailed and awaiting trial for a 2010 criminal sexual assault, prosecutors said.
Shepherd allegedly tried to hire a fellow jail inmate to kill his victim, the victim’s mother and two detectives who investigated the case.
“Shepherd gave the inmate a map to the residence of one of his intended victims as well as a taunting statement for him to read to the intended victims,” Will County prosecutors said in a news release about the case.
Instead, that inmate went to authorities about the plot and later wore a wire, prosecutors said.
The scheme didn’t end there, according to prosecutors: “Shepherd then hired a second inmate to kill the initial potential victims as well as the first hitman.”
The second inmate likewise went to police, officials said.
“Shepherd is an insidious miscreant who deserves every single day he will be spending in a cold, dark prison cell,” Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said in a prepared statement.
Shepherd, a former school bus driver, has been in custody since April 30, 2010, according to Will County Sheriff’s Department records posted online.
A judge handed down Shepherd’s sentence on Tuesday. He must serve 85 percent of the time before being eligible for release, prosecutors said.
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