SPRINGFIELD, IL — The Sangamon County State’s Attorney confirmed that the convicted murderer of Sonya Massey will have a hearing before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board July 31 seeking his release.
State’s Attorney John Milhiser said Sean Grayson, a former Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy convicted of second-degree murder in October, filed a pro-se application with the board, which in turn, advised Milhiser’s office.
Details of the hearing weren’t immediately available.
The State Journal-Register contacted the PRB late in the afternoon June 18.
Sontae Massey, the cousin of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman and the mother of two children, who was fatally shot inside her home in the Cabbage Patch neighborhood, an unincorporated area of Sangamon County in 2024, confirmed to the SJ-R that he talked to a victim’s advocate representative from Milhiser’s office Thursday.
“I had a physical reaction (when Iearned about the hearing),” Massey admitted. “I’m not going to be silent about my cousin, Sonya. How does he get afforded these things? He’s a killer. It’s sickening. This is our judicial system.”
A type of hearing Grayson may have applied for is under the Joe Coleman Act/Medical Release Hearings. According to the PRB website, that is for individuals in custody suffering from a terminal illness or medical incapacitation to apply for early release.
Grayson, 32, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer in 2023 and now has Stage 4 rectal cancer and cancer in his liver and lungs.
Grayson is serving a 20-year sentence. He is being held in a facility out-of-state.
Milhiser said he had not seen Grayson’s hearing application.
Sontae Massey said Milhiser’s office talked to other Massey family members.
Massey said his family would have an opportunity to speak at the hearing.
This story will be updated.
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Grayson applies to get released from prison; hearing in late July
Reporting by Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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By Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register | USA TODAY Network
