Chicago man gets 35 years in police dispatcher’s death

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man has been given a 35-year prison sentence in the death of a police dispatcher who was hit by gunfire intended for another person.

Yvonne Nelson had just stepped out of a coffee shop near Chicago Police Department headquarters in May 2016 when Javion Harris shot her. Harris was 15 years old at the time, and the intended target was shot several times but survived.

The sentence that Cook County Circuit Judge Maura Slattery Boyle gave to Harris, now 19, on Thursday is five years shy of the maximum allowed under Illinois law for crimes committed by juveniles.

In asking for leniency, attorney Brandy Brixy said her client, Harris, witnessed abuse and trauma from a young age. Brixy said after his arrest, Harris blossomed at the more stable environment of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center.