Man Sentenced For Killing Southern Illinois Mayor

A 35-year prison sentence has been handed to a Washington Park man convicted in the shooting death of the mayor of the southwestern Illinois village.
A St. Clair County jury in April found 36-year-old Aaron Jackson guilty of first-degree murder in the death of John Thornton.

Prosecutors contended Jackson shot Thornton several times in the chest as the 52-year-old sat in his car on April 1, 2010. They theorized Thornton was headed home from his sanitary district job when Jackson flagged him down to ask for money.

Jackson was convicted in a second trial. A judge last October declared a mistrial after a witness changed her testimony about whether she talked to an investigator at the scene of the killing. That witness also claimed the investigator offered her a bribe.