People v. McNeal

A judge found Jarvis McNeal in direct criminal contempt of court after he invoked his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to testify as a prosecution witness/victim at Dante Brown’s trial for murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery. The judge sentenced McNeal to six months’ incarceration and ordered that sentence to run consecutively with whatever sentence might later be imposed for then-pending charges against McNeal of murder and unlawful use of a weapon. We reverse the trial court’s order and vacate McNeal’s sentence.

I. FACTS

Brown was charged with the…