Kernan shooter to keep 4-year sentence despite appellate ruling

A Kernan man convicted of shooting at his former boss will keep his original four-year prison term. Although an appeals court granted him partial relief, a judge stood by his initial sentence despite no one being injured.

Steven Shelly, 30, appeared Thursday in La Salle County Circuit Court for do-over sentencing on his 2021 felony case. He was charged with firing multiple shots outside his home Feb. 5, 2021. Shelly claimed self-defense, but a jury rejected that.

An appeals court upheld charges stemming from the shooting but reversed a lesser conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm without a firearm owner’s identification card. On appeal, Shelly argued that prosecutors needed to show Shelly knew his FOID card was revoked.

The appeals court agreed and sent Shelly back to La Salle County for new sentencing.

On Thursday, Chicago defense attorney Anthony Burch asked Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. to consider probation in light of the appellate reversal; but Assistant La Salle County State’s Attorney Matt Kidder said the four-year hitch was weighted more heavily by the discharge counts, not the possession conviction.

Ryan agreed and stood by the four-year term. Before Thursday’s hearing, Shelly was scheduled for parole in early March 2025.

Shelly declined to address Ryan before sentencing.

Shelly might not have shaved any time off his sentencing, but prosecutors still are unhappy with his appeal.

It once was necessary only to show a suspect possessed a gun and his FOID card was revoked. Shelly’s ruling now means prosecutors need to prove a suspect is aware that his or her FOID card is revoked.

“It’s next to impossible to prove what’s in someone’s mind,” La Salle County State’s Attorney Joseph Navarro said at the time of the appellate ruling.

Navarro thought the appellate court got it wrong and appealed the ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court. The state’s top court declined to hear it, however.