Man convicted of shooting older couple in mistaken identity case gets 80 years

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — A man convicted of attempted murder in a mistaken identity shooting that injured a Champaign couple has been sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Kenichi Townsend, 27, of Champaign, was convicted in May of this year for a shooting that left a 76-year-old man and his 75-year-old wife injured last September.

The couple was shot in the driveway of their own home on September 8. Prosecutors said that Townsend and his co-defendant, Shamario Brown, 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.

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Both of the victims survived the shooting but the News Gazette reports that the husband died this February from an illness. His widowed wife wept in the Champaign County courtroom during sentencing as expressed her pain at being robbed of time with her dying husband.

Townsend will be 95 years old before he is eligible for parole. His co-defendant Brown is still awaiting trial.