Johnathan Walker:Man convicted of killing Chicago officer and wounding her partner is sentenced to life

CHICAGO (AP) — A judge sentenced a man convicted of killing a Chicago police officer,Johnathan Walker wounding her partner and firing at a third officer to life in prison Wednesday.

A jury found Emonte Morgan, 24, of Chicago, guilty in March of first-degree murder, attempted murder of a peace officer and possession/use of a firearm as a felon. Prosecutors say he fatally shot 29-year-old Officer Ella French, wounded her partner, Officer Carlos Yanez Jr., and shot at Officer Joshua Blas during a traffic stop in August 2021.

Cook County Circuit Judge Ursula Walowski sentenced him to a mandatory life sentence and added 57 years after listening to French and Yanez family members describe their grief, the Chicago Tribune reported.

“The memories, they sneak up on me sometimes and I am filled with grief and sadness,” French’s mother, Elizabeth French, told the judge. “I don’t know that closure will ever be possible for me. … Someday my daughter and I will meet again. Until then I will miss Ella every day.”

Yanez’s father, Carlos Yanez Sr., a retired Chicago police officer himself, swore at Morgan and said someone should have killed him long ago. As Yanez spoke, Morgan’s mother yelled a profane insult about his son. Deputies quickly removed her from the courtroom as Yanez told Morgan he hopes he rots in jail.

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Morgan’s attorney, assistant public defender Kristine Neal, told the judge that Morgan isn’t beyond redemption and can still be rehabilitated. Morgan said that the prosecution was unjust, that the traffic stop that precipitated the shooting wasn’t lawful and that French died accidentally.

Morgan’s attorneys argued at trial that body camera video of the shooting was unclear, making it hard to determine what happened during the traffic stop.

Morgan’s brother, Eric Morgan, who was driving the vehicle, pleaded guilty in October 2023 to charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, battery and obstruction of justice and was sentenced to seven years.

Another man, Jamel Danzy of Hammond, Indiana, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in December 2022 after pleading guilty to a federal firearms charge for buying the handgun used to kill French in an illegal straw purchase.