By JOHN O’CONNOR, Associated Press

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois jury has begun deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of a sheriff’s deputy who shot Sonya Massey, a Black woman in her home who had called 911 for help and was later killed because of the way she was handling a pan of hot water.

The nine-woman, three-man jury received the case just after 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Jurors must decide whether Sean Grayson, 31, is guilty of murder for fatally shooting Massey in her Springfield home.

Grayson and another deputy answered Massey’s emergency call reporting a prowler outside the 36-year-old woman’s home early on the morning of July 6, 2024. They entered the house and, spotting a pan of hot water on the stove, Grayson ordered it removed, according to the other deputy’s body camera video, which was key evidence.

Grayson and Massey joked about how Grayson moved away as Massey moved the hot pan. Then, Massey said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” Grayson yelled at her to drop the pot and threatened to shoot her. Massey apologized and ducked behind a counter.

“She makes it abundantly clear, ‘I want no part of this. Let this be done,’” Mary Beth Rodgers, Sangamon County First Assistant State’s attorney, said in her closing argument. “She doesn’t say, ‘Let’s go, Sean.’ She says, ‘I’m sorry.’ He has no right to go into her kitchen, where she’s hiding from an angry man with a gun, he has no right to follow her and shoot her.”

Defense attorney Daniel Fultz beseeched the jury to decide how Grayson felt in the moment, “not to sit back 15 months later and say, ‘This is what I would have done.’”

“He drew his weapon to gain compliance, to make her realize that whatever she was considering doing, she shouldn’t do,” Fultz said. “It is true that she put the pot down. If it ended there, we wouldn’t be here today, but for reasons we’ll never know, she reacquired the pot, stood up and threw it in his direction. Only at that time did he fire his weapon.”

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Massey’s killing raised new questions about U.S. law enforcement shootings of Black people in their homes. The accompanying publicity, protests and legal action over the incident prompted Judge Ryan Cadagin to move the trial from Springfield, 200 miles southwest of Chicago, to Peoria, an hour’s drive north of the capital city, because of pre-trial publicity.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Grayson faces a sentence of 45 years to life in prison. The jury also has been given the option of considering second-degree murder, which applies when there is a “serious provocation” of the defendant or when defendants believe their actions are justified even though that belief is unreasonable.

Second-degree murder is punishable by a term of four to 20 years or probation.

In an unusual step for a defendant in a murder case, Grayson testified in his own defense, saying he considered using a Taser to subdue Massey but was afraid it wouldn’t work given the distance and the counter separating them. He said he determined that Massey was a threat and drew his 9 mm pistol only after she uttered her “rebuke” twice — although prosecutors pointed out that was because he didn’t hear her and asked her to repeat it.

Dawson Farley, the other deputy on the scene that morning, testified that while he followed Grayson in drawing his gun, he did not see or hear anything that caused him to consider Massey a threat. But Farley, who did not fire his weapon, acknowledged that he initially told investigators he was threatened by the hot water. Fultz suggested in his closing that the reason the then-probationary employee changed his story after Grayson was indicted was so he wouldn’t be criminally charged too.

By REBECCA SANTANA and ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is reassigning at least half the top leadership at Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices around the country in a major shake-up of the agency responsible for carrying out the president’s vision for mass deportations, according to one current and one former U.S. government official.

The current official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said 12 ICE field office directors — the officers who run the network of field offices around the country responsible for immigration enforcement — were being reassigned.

Half are to be replaced by existing or retired Customs and Border Protection staff, while the other half would be replaced by ICE officers, both the current and former officials said. The changes were initiated by the Homeland Security Department, the current official said, without specifying which cities were impacted.

The former official, who has direct knowledge of the changes and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not intended for public release, said on top of the 12 reassignments, leaders in another four cities were being swapped out through retirements or other circumstances. He said the cities include major immigration enforcement targets such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington.

He added that ICE leadership has been discussing the changes with other Trump administration officials for some time as part of a broad review of the agency.

The reason for the personnel changes wasn’t immediately clear. But they indicate a greater integration of Border Patrol agents in ICE at a time when Customs and Border Protection has been accused of using heavy-handed tactics in its immigration enforcement.

A major shakeup in Trump’s immigration enforcement leadership

With a total of 25 field offices around the country, the reassignments amount to turnover of about half or more of the top staffers carrying out the president’s hardline immigration enforcement plans, which has seen a major deployment of law enforcement in major American cities, thousands of arrests and surging fear among residents, especially in immigrant communities.

Homeland Security and the White House did not comment on the reassignments and each instead highlighted that all elements of immigration enforcement were working as one team.

Putting Customs and Border Protection officers into top positions within Immigration and Customs Enforcement would create an expanded role for an agency that is already at the forefront of many of the aggressive tactics seen in both Los Angeles and now in Chicago.

CBP officers — specifically Border Patrol agents — have carried out some of the most controversial operations as part of immigration crackdowns in both of those cities, including a recent raid in Chicago where officers rappelled down onto a building in an apartment complex from a helicopter. Border Patrol agents have also popped out of a moving truck and chased after people and conducted patrols through downtown Chicago.

Border Patrol agents protect the land and water between the official border crossings to prevent human trafficking, drug smuggling or other types of contraband from entering the U.S. ICE, since its creation in 2003, is the main agency responsible for immigration enforcement inside the country.

But during the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents have been taking part in immigration enforcement operations around the country, far from their more traditional duties.

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief from California who has been heading the Border Patrol’s operations in both cities, is himself accused of throwing tear gas canisters at protesters and took the stand Tuesday as a defendant in a federal lawsuit about whether federal officials are using excessive force in Chicago.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says its agents carry out “targeted enforcement operations,” which often involve hours of time staking out people they’re trying to remove from the country.

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It’s the latest in a series of personnel changes

This is the third shake-up at ICE since Trump took office, reflecting the importance of the agency’s role in executing the president’s vision.

In February, Homeland Security reassigned Caleb Vitello, the acting director of ICE, to another position. Todd Lyons, a veteran ICE agent, was later announced as the new acting head of the agency, a position he still holds.

Then in May, ICE announced the reassignment of the two top officials heading the agency’s main branches.

A spokesperson for Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, did not comment Tuesday on the personnel changes but said in a statement that the department remained “laser focused on RESULTS and we will deliver.”

“This is one team, one fight,” she said. “President (Donald) Trump has a brilliant, tenacious team led by Secretary (Kristi) Noem to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an e-mailed statement: “The President’s entire team is working in lockstep to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.”

Spagat reported from Chicago.

An 83-year old Wisconsin man was killed in a two-car crash Monday on Interstate 94 in Afton, authorities said.

According to the Minnesota State Patrol, a 76-year-old man was driving a 1987 Chevrolet Corvette east on I-94 near Manning Avenue around 2:15 p.m., when he collided with a 2009 Toyota Corolla that also was heading east.

The Corvette lost control, spun out, and went into the south ditch, where it rolled, according to the State Patrol. The Corolla also went into the south ditch, State Patrol officials said.

A passenger in the Corvette, Thomas Samuel Amsbaugh, of Downing, Wis., was later pronounced dead at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. The driver of the Corvette, Peter Henry Jungenberg, 76, of Menomonie, was taken to Regions for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, according to the State Patrol.

The driver of the 2009 Toyota Corolla, Say Wah Doh, 30, of North St. Paul, was not injured, according to the State Patrol.

All three of the people involved were wearing seat belts, according to the patrol.

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The Washington County Agricultural Society is looking for a new fair manager and treasurer following last week’s resignation of Washington County Fair Manager and Treasurer Dorie Ostertag.

Ostertag, of Afton, celebrated her 31st year as fair manager this summer. She declined to comment Tuesday on her resignation, which occurred on Oct. 21 at the annual meeting of the Washington County Agricultural Society in Baytown Township.

President Phyllis Wirth said Agricultural Society officials are in the process of posting the position. “Hopefully, we will be interviewing soon,” she said.

Ostertag’s resignation is “a loss in part because of the experience that goes with it,” said John Rheinberger, a longtime Agricultural Society board member whose term ended Tuesday. “She will be hard to replace.”

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