Man gets 80 years for woman’s death after concert

A Hammond man was sentenced to 80 years Thursday for a Gary woman’s slaying after attending concert with her on July 27, 2019, in Tinley Park, Illinois.

James E. McGhee, 40, was charged with the death of Sidne-Nichole Buchanan, 27, a dance teacher, social media influencer and model he was seeing.

He was accused of beating her to death in his Gary apartment, then taking her body to an Illinois forest preserve, according to court documents.

McGhee was “jealous” after seeing she was involved with another man, a longtime on-and-off boyfriend earlier that day and knowing he was the “side” relationship, prosecutors said. He planned to confront her after the concert, which turned violent and deadly, they said.

Her body was found weeks later.

He denied his involvement.

His defense lawyer J. Michael Woods argued the state could not prove how she died and if McGhee killed her. The credibility of the prosecution’s star witness Kevin Thomas, McGhee’s friend, was “generally unreliable,” the lawyer said.

After the murder, McGhee picked Thomas up, taking him back to the apartment, before hauling Buchanan’s body to Illinois.

En route, he told Thomas that he “lost it,” justifying why he killed her, Thomas said at trial. After he was given immunity, he led police to the area where her body was found at the Thornton-Lansing Road Forest Preserve in unincorporated Cook County, Illinois, on Aug. 12.

McGhee was sentenced to 60 years on a murder charge, with an additional 20 given for a habitual offender enhancement, which can be added if a defendant has at least two prior unrelated felonies.

Buchanan’s family appeared to react favorably as the verdict was read.

Senior Judge Michael Bergerson oversaw the sentencing and trial after Judge Diane Boswell’s death on Oct. 19.

McGhee was credited for 494 days — or about 16 months — for time spent in jail and good time credit.

That included nearly a year spent on house arrest when Boswell released him under Indiana Criminal Rule 4 after she ruled he was incarcerated too long before he was tried.

Buchanan was more like a “sister” and “best friend,” her mother, Kaneka Turner, said. She was “generous” — giving money or clothes to others, sometimes paying for prescriptions for elderly people, Turner said.

Buchanan’s son took the death “extremely bad,” her mother said. For Buchanan’s daughter, now 13, it is “starting to be more difficult,” Turner said.

“I dread the day they find out what actually happened to my daughter,” she said.

McGhee was a “heartless, evil person,” she said.

Earlier, her friend, Erica Henderson, testified they met on a modeling job and bonded. Buchanan helped her through her first pregnancy and had put together her gender reveal and baby shower, she said.

McGhee’s aunt, Linda Marable, said he was an “awesome young man” as a teen, who struggled with a learning disability and bipolar disorder.

He left his mother’s house at 13, hinting at “problems in the home” involving the woman’s boyfriend. McGhee was homeless for several years, later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In prison, he had gotten his GED and started some college, she said.

After his 2015 release from the Indiana Department of Correction at Westville, McGhee found his mother dead in a hotel room from a heart condition in June 2016, she testified.

McGhee did not address the court. Woods read a statement McGhee gave in his presentence investigation report.

“I do feel sorry for her family,” he said. Buchanan was a “sweet, fun, lovely person.”

“I didn’t do this crime,” according to the statement. “It bothers me that the jury found me guilty.”

The coroner could not determine a cause of death, he noted.

Bruno asked for 85 years, saying McGhee was a habitual offender — so much so that the only times he wasn’t committing crimes since 2000 was while in prison, he said.

His criminal record included 12 law enforcement contacts, two misdemeanor and six prior felony convictions, the prosecutor said.

McGhee was on threeyear probation at the time of Buchanan’s death.

He signed a plea agreement after he was charged with severely beating a pregnant ex-girlfriend who was carrying quadruplets. Three of the babies did not survive, according to a criminal affidavit. He later was accused of kidnapping her and later her young son for several months, it alleged.

Woods countered prosecutors were working with a “shaky foundation” and a “great deal of speculation.”

The forensic pathologist couldn’t determine how Buchanan died, due partly to the state of decomposition. The narrative that McGhee was “jealous” of her longtime on-and-off again boyfriend was only their theory, he said.

McGhee’s prior convictions were not close to the realm of murder, his lawyer said. Prosecutors wanted to throw the “book” at McGhee without having the “receipts” to back it up, Woods said. He asked for 60 years — 55 on murder and 5 on the enhancement.

Bergeson found McGhee lacked the “slightest bit of remorse.” He was a “heartless and gutless misogynist” and “dangerous sociopath” with a history of violence against women.

His sentence was in a legal category meant for the “worst of the worst,” the judge ruled.

McGhee indicated he would appeal.

He has two pending cases involving getting fraudulent benefits from state unemployment and federal coronavirus aid.