One man has been sentenced and another is awaiting sentencing in a beating case on the SIU-Carbondale campus last spring.The Jackson County State's Attorney's office says 22-year-old Gregory McElrath of Chicago pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and was sentenced to two years' probation. He was also fined, ordered to complete an anger management course, have no contact with the victim and to stay off the SIU-C campus while on probation.
The other defendant, 19-year-old Jihad Williamson of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was found guilty of aggravated battery and mob action. He will be sentenced in November.
Evidence showed McElrath and Williamson waited for another SIU-C student to leave his dorm last April. McElrath and Williamson chased the victim into the foyer of University Hall, where they beat him.
McElrath and Williamson fled the scene, but eyewitness reports allowed police to find them. The incident was also captured on surveillance cameras. Neither McElrath nor Williamson were SIU-C students at the time of the incident.
