Man convicted of Champaign couple's attempted murders in mistaken identity shooting

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - A man has been convicted of attempted murder in a mistaken identity shooting that injured a Champaign couple.

A Champaign County jury convicted Kenichi Townsend, 27, of Champaign of the Sept. 8 attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.

The News Gazette reports the jury took less than 90 minutes to agree that Townsend was working with co-defendant Shamario Brown when they opened fire on a vehicle on Heritage Drive.

The shooting left a 76-year-old man and his 75-year-old wife injured.

The jury ruled Townsend personally fired a gun that caused great bodily harm to the couple.

The personal discharge is an enhancement that means he faces 31 years to life for each victim and the sentences must be served consecutively.

Sentencing is set for July 7.

Both victims survived the shooting. However, the News Gazette reports the husband died in February from an illness.

Townsend had been offered a plea agreement that would have resolved the case and another gun-related case for 25 years in prison if he agreed to testify against Brown.

Townsend declined the offer.

Brown's case is still pending. He is due back in court June 6.

Prosecutors said Brown and Townsend intended to kill someone named Oshae Cotton. Cotton was known to drive a Jeep Cherokee, the same type of vehicle the couple had been driving when they were shot.

The woman said she and her husband were pulling into their driveway in their Jeep Cherokee as they were moving into their new home. As her husband backed in, she said she saw a vehicle pull up to the passenger side where she was sitting and "heard an explosion."

She had been shot in her upper back, and her forehead had been grazed.

Her husband had been shot in the upper arm and sustained multiple cuts on his arms and legs from the shattered glass.

The News Gazette reports the Jeep was riddled with bullets.