A Chicago man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for firing a gun into a murder victim's grave during a 2017 burial service at a cemetery in suburban Evergreen Park, prosecutors said.
On Nov. 22, 2017, at Evergreen Cemetery, Elston Stevenson displayed a handgun and said words to the effect of, “You ain’t [expletive]. You got what you deserved.” Stevenson fired a single shot into the grave of the unidentified deceased man, who had been murdered two days earlier, according to the U.S Attorney's Office.
Stevenson then waved the gun in the direction of the mourners as he fled the service. He was arrested a short time later near the entrance of the cemetery.
The suspect pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon and received a 15-year sentence on July 1.
“When a felon brings a loaded gun to a populated area and uses the gun to threaten and endanger strangers, this conduct will not be tolerated,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Cornelius A. Vandenberg argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “The mourners were all in the immediate vicinity of the defendant when he produced the loaded weapon and were placed in danger by the defendant’s reckless firing of the weapon into the gravesite.”
