Deputy who killed Sonya Massey to remain in jail, judge rules as Illinois sheriff steps down

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The former Illinois deputy who fatally shot Sonya Massey last month will remain jailed, a judge ruled Friday, rejecting his request to be released on bail to accommodate his medical needs, which include treatment for colon cancer.

Also Friday, Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell announced he would resign, saying it had “become clear that the current political climate has made it nearly impossible” for him to continue effectively in his role.

Attorneys for Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who killed Massey in her Springfield home July 6, argued in a motion filed last month in the Circuit Court for the Seventh Judicial Circuit in Sangamon County that Menard County Jail, where Grayson is being detained, “does not have the medical staff with the capacity to provide necessary care.”

His attorneys also said in the motion that all firearms and weapons had been removed from his home; that he did not have access to any weapons through the sheriff’s office since he had been fired; and that there was no reason to believe he would have contact with Massey’s family or “engage in violence upon release.” It also noted that Grayson, who was to be married in October, had a low score on a pretrial risk assessment. Grayson appeared virtually for the hearing.

At an arraignment last month, a judge granted the prosecution’s request that Grayson remain in custody. The judge said his comments before and after the shooting, “including disparaging remarks he made” about Massey and directing another deputy not to render aid, “are so out of bounds of societal norms that it suggests that there’s no condition that would be sufficient.”

“Simply no longer working as a police officer or home confinement or electronic monitoring or any other conditions that are oftentimes used cannot sufficiently mitigate the threat of someone who acted in this way,” the judge said.

On Friday, Campbell heeded calls from Massey’s family and others across the state who had urged him to resign. He said that he has “been proactive and transparent, working tirelessly to present all of the facts to the public” since Massey’s killing.

“I have committed to making changes to our standards and collaborating with other units of government on ways to prevent incidents like this in the future,” he said in a statement. “The one person truly responsible for this act is in jail, and I believe justice will be served through the legal process.”

“Despite these efforts, some in our community want me to pay the price for that person’s actions, even threatening that I pay that price with my life, my family’s lives, or the lives of my Deputies,” he said. “We will only persevere together as a community if we turn down the temperature and resolve to do better. We must honor the life of Sonya Massey by ensuring that no one else falls victim to such tragic and senseless action. That has been my sincere mission since that fateful day.”

He said his health, as well as that of his family, the Sheriff’s Office, and the community “has to be my priority.”

Massey had called 911 to report a suspected prowler early on the morning of July 6. Grayson and another deputy, who has not been publicly identified, responded. The encounter ended with Grayson shooting Massey in the head. He said in a field report released this week that he believed Massey intended deadly harm when she told him and the other deputy, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” as she stood near a pot of hot liquid.

“I interpreted this to mean she was going to kill me,” Grayson also said in the report, which was written three days after the shooting. He said that Massey later threw boiling hot water toward him. At the time she was shot, Massey is blocked from view in the body camera video released by the Illinois State Police, which conducted an independent investigation. Sheriff Jack Campbell and prosecutors have said the use of force was not justified.

Grayson is 6-foot-3 and 228 pounds. Massey was 5-foot-4 and 112 pounds, according to her autopsy report.

After shooting Massey, Grayson discouraged the other deputy from rendering aid, citing the severity of her injury, according to body camera video. The deputy still rendered aid and stayed with Massey until medical help arrived, prosecutors have said.

On July 17, Grayson was fired from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, where he had been employed since May 2023. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct.

In a jail booking video obtained by NBC Chicago through a public records request, Grayson talks with deputies from the Sangamon and Menard County sheriff’s offices. Grayson was being booked into the Menard County Jail when it was recorded.

In the video, Grayson says that he thinks he will be released and that he was in custody for his own safety.

Campbell has said that the department failed Massey and that Grayson had been properly trained on how to de-escalate the situation. But on Wednesday, after Gov. JB Pritzker said Campbell had failed at his job and should resign, Campbell said he would not. Campbell had said that calls for his resignation were politically motivated. Campbell is a Republican and had been sheriff since 2018.

Pritzker has expressed similar concerns as Massey’s family, who have questioned how Grayson was allowed to work in Sangamon County given the contents of his disciplinary file from the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, where he worked immediately before Sangamon County.

Grayson had been faulted for disobeying an order to halt a high-speed chase that ended in him striking a deer and for violating department policy, according to a disciplinary report in his personnel file from Logan County, which also shows that he had been reprimanded over inaccuracies in his police reports, among other things.