Man gets 35 years in Chicago dispatcher’s shooting death

CHICAGO – A man convicted of murder last year in the death of a Chicago dispatcher who wasn’t the intended target has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Yvonne Nelson had just stepped out of a coffee shop near Chicago Police Department headquarters when Javion Harris shot her in May 2016. The man who was the target was also shot but survived. Harris was 15 at the time.

The sentence that Cook County Circuit Judge Maura Slattery Boyle gave Harris 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.