A minimum four year prison sentence was given to the Kernan man convicted of aggravated discharge of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm without a Firearm Owner Identification Card. Assistant State’s Attorney Matt Kidder asked for seven years sentence for 28-year old Steven Shelly before he was sentenced in Judge H. Chris Ryan’s courtroom Thursday. Shelly confronted two men with a shotgun in February last year. But he lost control of the gun during a struggle. He then pulled a handgun and shot at the two men. Neither of them was hurt. Shelly’s Attorney Anthony Burch claimed that his client never got to use a self defense claim when Burch asked Ryan to drop the guilty conviction. Ryan denied it. Before being sentence, Shelly gave a statement saying he apologizes to Judge Ryan for his time and also apologized to family for what he did.
Also before he was sentence, Kidder showed a video of a domestic incident at Shelly’s home where he was acting belligerent and yelling expletives at his then girlfriend. The incident happened before the shooting incident. He is also accused of violence in an incident in Will County back in January 2020.