People v. Decker

The defendant, Sherryl Decker, was tried by a jury, acquitted of attempted murder but convicted of two counts each of armed violence and aggravated battery, and sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment. The offenses occurred when a Vermilion County sheriff’s deputy was trying to serve an arrest warrant for a minor offense on the defendant’s husband; shooting broke out, and the deputy was wounded in the neck and in the abdomen. On appeal the defendant argues that armed violence was doubly enhanced and unconstitutionally disproportionate here, that the trial judge erred in excluding some testimony…