Illinois man’s sentence modified due to previous case dismissal

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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:35AM

Shainne Rashawn Sharp is going home.

The 36-year-old Illinois man had been sentenced in Lake County to 10 years in prison in 2009 for dealing cocaine in part because of 1991 murder and aggravated kidnapping convictions, which were vacated and the cases dismissed in January.

In the interest of fairness, deputy prosecutor Robert Persin and defense attorneys Lemuel Stigler and Jerry Peteet brought the issue before Lake Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray, who agreed to modify Sharp’s sentence that had been based in part on Sharp’s criminal history. At the time, Murray imposed an aggravated sentence of 12 years, with two years suspended and served on probation.

“Ultimately the goal of any criminal court is to dispense justice in a fair manner,” Murray said in granting the defense request of six years, with credit for four years and 10 months and the remaining 14 months suspended and served on probation.

Peteet said Sharp was 17 and learning disabled when he was interrogated and coerced into a false confession in the murder and rape of 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews of Dixmoor, Ill. DNA testing eventually linked a convicted rapist to the case for which Sharp and Robert Veal, 34, had agreed to testify against co-defendants in exchange for 20-year sentences.

“So much has been taken,” Peteet said of Sharp’s incarceration in the Illinois case.

Murray said Sharp should be transported to the Lake County Jail for his release from Westville Correctional Center. Once he’s released, Sharp must report to his Lake County probation officer, but the case can be transferred to Illinois, where Sharp plans to live with his wife and grandmother.