ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) – A 90-year prison sentence has been handed a northern Illinois man convicted of firing a bullet that left a man unable to walk, talk and breathe on his own.
Perriyon King of Rockford apologized Tuesday for the April 2017 shooting that put 71-year-old Richard Griffin under a doctor’s care for the rest of his life. However, the 22-year-old King maintained he wasn’t the shooter.
King was convicted earlier this year of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery, aggravated discharge of a firearm and mob action. Prosecutors say King’s victim was not the intended target. In a separate trial, co-defendant 27-year-old Edmond Lilly Jr. was acquitted.
Marsha Griffin told Winnebago County Circuit Judge Donna Honzel that she and her husband were driving home after dinner when a bullet pierced the window. A second bullet struck her husband in the head, where it remains lodged.
