Testimony begins Wednesday in the murder case against former Sangamon deputy

Friends, family and supporters of Sonya Massey gather outside the Peoria County Courthouse on Monday, Oct. 20, during jury selection for the trial of a former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy accused of her murder. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Beth Hundsdorfer)

PEORIA — The prosecution in the murder case of former Sangamon County deputy Sean Grayson showed the video recording Wednesday afternoon of Grayson fatally shooting Sonya Massey after she called to report a prowler. Some jurors covered their eyes or looked down. One dabbed tears with a tissue.

Massey’s family members left the courtroom as the video showed Massey bleeding from a head wound and struggling to breathe after she was shot. Blood pooled on her kitchen floor where the shooting took place as another deputy called for a medical kit for Massey.

“Dude, she’s done. You can go get it if you want, but she’s done,” Grayson is heard saying. He later said he “wasn’t gonna waste his med stuff” on Massey.

Grayson called dispatch and asked whether they had ever any “10-96” calls there — police code for a person who has mental illness.

“This f—ing b—h is crazy,” Grayson said after the shooting.

Grayson, 31, was charged with first-degree murder weeks after the shooting near Springfield. He was fired from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department after he was charged. He pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors dropped two lesser charges, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct, late Monday.

The video was taken from the body camera of Dawson Farley, the deputy who was with Grayson the night of the shooting on July 6, 2024.

Grayson’s lawyers say he feared great harm

There is no disagreement between the prosecution and defense that Grayson shot Massey, but the crux of the murder case against Grayson is whether he feared for his and Farley’s lives when he used lethal force by firing a shot that struck and killed Massey.

The defense alleged she was threatening to do great bodily harm. The weapon? A pot of boiling water.

“Make no mistake, we are here today because of the actions of Sean Grayson,” said Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser told the jury during his opening statement Wednesday morning.

“At the end of the day this defendant went into her home and shot and killed her without lawful justification because he was mad at her.”

Massey had called 911, telling the dispatcher she thought there was a prowler outside.

Dan Fultz, Grayson’s attorney, said during his opening statements that Massey was a threat and did not comply with the deputy’s repeated requests to put down the pot of water, changing the dynamic of the call.

“This quickly became a rapidly changing situation,” Fultz said. “He was forced to make the decision that no police officer wants to make.”

Partner takes the stand

During afternoon testimony, prosecutors called Farley to the stand, then played his body camera video for the jury.

Farley testified that on the night of Massey’s shooting, he looked around the perimeter of the house then followed Grayson inside, noting that his training was not to leave another deputy.

Grayson asked Massey for her identification, then noticed a pot heating liquid on the stove and asked her to remove it. As she did, Massey, who was Black, said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

Grayson, who is white, then threatened to shoot Massey. Moments later, he pulled his 9 mm service weapon and fired three times, striking Massey once in the face.

When questioned 72 hours after the shooting, Farley wrote in his statement that he feared Sonya Massey would cause great bodily harm by throwing the scalding hot water.

Farley gave that statement on July 9, 2024, then that same day, he watched the video taken from his body camera the night of the shooting and wrote another, more detailed statement.

The next day, the Illinois State Police asked for an interview with Farley, but the police union advised him not to go, Farley said.

‘I wanted to do right by Sonya and her family’

After Grayson’s indictment two weeks after Massey’s shooting, Farley contacted Illinois State Police to “clarify” his statement, stating he didn’t see Massey raise the pot to her chest with her hand underneath. He also said he never felt in fear of Massey but feared the actions of Grayson.

When asked by Milhiser, the state’s attorney, why he changed his statement, Farley looked down then said, “I wanted to do right by Sonya and her family. I wanted to tell the truth.”

Farley joined the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office 10 months before the shooting and was still on probation. He could be terminated for any reason during his first year.

Farley told jurors it was his training to render aid to someone who was injured. While Massey was on the kitchen floor, bleeding, Farley held kitchen towels to her head to control the bleeding.

After emergency medical personnel arrived, the video shows him heading to his car and washing the blood from his trembling hands. His breathing in the video was labored.

State Police investigation

The jury also heard testimony from Illinois State Police Lt. Eric Weston, who headed the officer-involved shooting investigation. Illinois State Police investigate officer-involved shootings to provide an unbiased investigation for local state’s attorneys to review.

Weston testified that he arrived on scene at about 3 a.m. on July 6, 2024 — two hours after the shooting. Weston, who said he has worked on more than a dozen officer-involved shooting investigations, was told the shooting was a result of a prowler call where there was an incident with a pot of water that resulted in a use of force.

The investigation proceeded with routine tasks including a neighborhood canvas, a visit to the hospital for Grayson to check his well-being and to have blood and urine drawn.

But the tenor of the investigation changed on a Sunday afternoon, Weston said, when he saw the video from Farley’s bodycam. Grayson’s bodycam, he learned, wasn’t on.

“It was different than the assumption on the scene,” Weston said.

He testified that he believed before seeing the video that there had to be something more that preceded the shooting — verbal threats, an act of aggression by Massey, perhaps.

Mark Wykoff, another of Grayson’s attorneys, questioned Weston about the Illinois State Police crime scene investigators who collected evidence at Massey’s house. Weston told the jury that after reviewing the video of the shooting, he sent them back to the house to look for a third bullet.

And Wykoff pointed out other lapses in evidence collection, including failing to immediately collect the pot that was on Massey’s stove that night.

“Ms. Massey was using a pot of boiling liquid as a weapon,” Wykoff said. “The pot wasn’t collected for two weeks.”

Grayson’s career trajectory

Weston further testified Grayson received crisis intervention training the year before, according to Illinois Law Enforcement and Training Board records. The training is designed to deescalate conflict when calls involve those having a mental health crisis.

Grayson  worked for six different departments in four years, but under cross-examination from Wykoff, Weston told the jury that the first three departments, beginning in 2020 with the Pawnee Police Department, were part-time positions until he got a full-time job with Auburn in 2021.

“That’s not an uncommon career trajectory for a law enforcement officer, is it?” Wykoff said.

Weston agreed that it was not.

Read more: Grayson’s behavior in Logan County led superior to ask, ‘How are you still employed with us?’

The prosecution’s second witness was Kathryn Barton, who worked at Sangamon County Central Dispatch. Barton answered Massey’s 911 call that night.

“I keep hearing stuff outside my house, like somebody is banging on the side of my house,” Massey said on the recorded call.

During that 911 call, Massey sounded calm but could not remember her phone number when Barton asked. Then the call dropped.

Grayson and Farley responded to the call just after 1 a.m. Massey, who family members said was experiencing a mental health crisis, told Grayson she heard someone outside her home during the overnight hours. The deputies searched the area around the outside but didn’t find anything. Minutes later, Massey lay dying on the floor.

Testimony is expected to continue Thursday.

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