CHICAGO — A Chicago man who fired a gun into the grave of a murder victim during his burial service has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
During the Nov. 22, 2017, service at Evergreen Cemetery in Evergreen Park, Elston Stevenson drew 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 deceased man, who had been murdered two days earlier.
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.
Stevenson, 57, pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon. U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp, Jr., imposed the 15-year sentence July 1, 2020, in federal court in Chicago.
“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.”
