Jury convicts Sterling man of 1st-degree murder in May 2021 shooting

MORRISON – A Sterling man will be sentenced Oct. 19 for murdering an acquaintance in his backyard a little more than two years ago.

After a five-day trial and five hours of deliberations, a jury Monday found Michael W.T. Bennett, 37, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the death of Joshua N. Hamrick, 39, who was shot in his backyard in the 900 block of West 19th Street in Sterling on May 1, 2021.

The jury also found that Bennett “personally discharged a firearm that caused death to another person,” which means he faces 25 years to life in addition to the sentence for first-degree murder, Whiteside County State’s Attorney Terry Costello said in a news release.

Bennett and Hamrick, who knew each other, got into an argument before the shooting occurred. Bennett fled the state, and was arrested shortly after, on June 8, 2021, near Centennial, Colorado.

He has been in the Whiteside County jail on $2 million bond since. Now that he’s been convicted, he will be held without bond until his sentencing.

Bennett was represented by Chicago attorney Michael Jarrard.

Bennett has a felony history in Whiteside County involving violence, guns and drugs that dates to 2004, and was on probation at the time of murder. That history will affect his sentence.

He was sentenced March 9, 2020, to 2½ years of probation for aggravated battery in a public place. Charges of aggravated discharge of a firearm and being a felon in possession of a weapon were dropped as part of a plea agreement.

On June 27, 2018, he was sentenced to a term of conditional discharge for aggravated battery that ended after he served 180 days in jail. Home invasion, being a felon in possession of a weapon and aggravated assault charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

In July 2014, he was sentenced to three years for possession of a controlled substance. A charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

He was given 2½ years in prison in October 2006 for aggravated battery causing great bodily harm. A felony charge of failure to report an injury accident was dismissed.

In August 2005, he was sentenced to two years in prison in a 2004 case for having an invalid FOID card, and a year for possession of marijuana, sentences that ran concurrently. Felony charges of armed robbery with a firearm and aggravated robbery, and misdemeanor charges of growing marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, were dismissed.