Man gets 36 years in fatal 2016 shooting

A man has been sentenced to 36 years in prison for the 2016 murder of a Waukegan High School student, Lake County prosecutors said Friday.

Willie C. Jackson, 22, was sentenced Thursday in Lake County court by Judge George Strickland, who oversaw the 2019 trial at which jurors found Jackson guilty of the first-degree murder of Dayviontay Jackson, prosecutors said.

The two men were not related, authorities said.

Willie Jackson, authorities say, shot the 17-yearold victim 10 times with an AR-15 assault rifle during a confrontation at a McKinley Avenue house in Waukegan.

At his trial, Jackson testified that he had never met Dayviontay Jackson before the night of their fatal encounter on Nov. 11, 2016. Jackson said he and a group were passing around the rifle and a pistol, and that Dayviontay had pointed the AR-15 at him. Willie Jackson testified that he was frightened, and that he jumped up and tried to wrestle the gun away from Dayviontay Jackson. That altercation over the weapon ended with the shooting, he told jurors.

But prosecutors argued that the number of shots fired and other evidence showed that Jackson’s claims of self-defense were not credible. Jackson, prosecutors argued, continued to shoot the victim as he lay dying.

Jurors deliberated about six hours before returning a guilty verdict at the trial’s end in May 2019.

The victim was a senior at Waukegan High School, authorities said. In a 2016 television interview, his mother said Dayviontay Jackson participated in the WHS Naval ROTC program and hoped to become a Navy SEAL.

Assistant State’s Attorney Danielle Pascucci said sentencing in the case was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but she hoped the conclusion would help bring some closure to the victim’s family.

Jackson will be required to serve 100% of his sentence with credit for time served.