Shea Redmond was sitting in the back of his mother’s car when she shot and killed his father at an Evanston gas station in 2001.
His mother, Marseilles, does not dispute that — but she’s arguing before a court that she killed Narsell Love in fear and panic after suffering abuse, culminating in him bumping his car over and over into the back of her bumper while her 1-year-old was strapped in the back.
Marseilles Redmond is seeking resentencing under an Illinois law that allows domestic violence survivors to make a case to a judge for a lower sentence. Her son, now 23, grew up grappling with his complicated and traumatic family history and hopes to have his mother home early for a second chance at building a family life together.
“I’m in the presence of family always,” Shea Redmond said. “Everyone is knocking on everyone’s doors, even when I don’t want them to. If everything goes according to plan, it’s something I would love to include my mother in.”
But a recent Illinois Supreme Court decision has created a new obstacle in the quest for a new sentence for Redmond and other women like her, ruling that the law doesn’t apply if a defendant pleaded guilty, rather than was convicted by a judge or jury.
The change has drawn notice by Illinois lawmakers who last month proposed a bill that would close the loophole.
“The bigger issue with the criminal legal system is that even when domestic violence survivors whether, defendants in criminal cases or otherwise share stories of survival, they are not considered relevant,” Redmond’s attorney Rachel White-Domain said. “(The law) does start to shift attention to this problem of prosecution of domestic violence survivors, the criminalization in the first place, the over-sentencing of domestic violence survivors.”
Meanwhile, Redmond’s case is before a Skokie judge who will decide next month whether the state high court’s decision applies in her case. White-Domain is arguing that it doesn’t because of the procedural status the case was in when the opinion came down, but she notes the decision impacts resentencing petitions for others like Redmond.
‘Your baby’s back here’
Marseilles Redmond started dating Love when she was 19, becoming pregnant shortly after the beginning of the relationship, according to her attorney and court documents.
Love was neglectful of Shea, then a baby, White-Domain told Judge Paul Pavlus during a hearing at the Skokie branch court on March 29. Love once left the baby in a hot car as well as alone on an apartment building landing, she said.
They broke up, and Love “became furious” when Redmond pursued child support and an order of protection, White-Domain said.
Shea Redmond, left, and lawyer Rachel White-Domain stand outside the Skokie Courthouse on Friday, March 29, 2024, in Skokie. Shea is the son of Marseilles Redmond, who is seeking to be resentenced and to have a reduction in the time she will spend in jail for the domestic violence-related killing of Narsell Love. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
“He was leaving threatening voicemails,” White-Domain said in court. “She believed as he stated multiple times on voicemails that he would eventually kill her.”
It came to a head in July of 2001, when Love drove behind her, Redmond has said, and bumped into the back of her car repeatedly.
They pulled into a gas station, and Redmond shot and killed Love. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
“He’s bumping the car. Your baby’s back here,” her mother, Vadal Redmond told the Tribune. “I can imagine if you’re fearful for your life … you’re extra fearful when it involves your baby.”
Cook County prosecutors, though, presented a different story in court, arguing to Pavlus that due to the Supreme Court decision, Redmond is barred from seeking a new sentence.
Assistant State’s Attorney Paul Hooper said Redmond saw Love with a “new flame” and shot him multiple times, alleging that she approached him, pointed the gun at his head and “executed” him.
“It’s a very one-sided description of the victim in this case as a bad person, a person who almost deserved what he got,” Hooper said in court.
After the hearing, White-Domain said Redmond is not contending that Love “deserved to die.”
“Shea deserved to have both of his parents,” she said. “Our position is that both of these young people deserved support and intervention to try to stop what he was doing, which was hurting his family.”
State high court decision
Surrounded by family and supporters, Vadal Redmond, second from the right, mother of Marseilles Redmond, leaves the Skokie Courthouse on Friday, March 29, 2024. Marseilles Redmond is seeking to be resentenced and a reduction in the time she will spend in jail for the killing of Narsell Love. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
In some cases in which abuse escalates to a tragic conclusion, the law allows an avenue to present to a judge mitigating circumstances for defendants who were victims themselves.
“The experience of domestic violence limits the real availability of safe choices while also warping the decision-making process itself for victims often resulting in choices that are rational once domestic violence is understood for what it is — the constant, often inescapable or unmanageable, presence of threats and dangers, often of multiple kinds,” Redmond argues in a motion for resentencing.
Redmond’s petition for a new sentence had been pending for years when the Illinois Supreme Court handed down a decision in another case in November, that of Angela Wells.
In Wells’ case, she pleaded guilty to one count of murder and agreed to testify against her husband in exchange for a sentence of 40 years. Peoria County prosecutors said she and her husband killed 20-year-old Jamie Weyrick in order to rob him in 2001.
She told police in a videotaped statement that her husband, Ronald Wells, told her he planned to kill Weyrick to steal money. She said she “she pleaded with her husband not to kill Weyrick” but he stabbed him, according to the court’s opinion. She helped him conceal the body in a freezer, she said according to the opinion, then later stabbed Weyrick when she realized he was not yet dead.
In 2018, Wells filed a petition in a lower court asking a judge for a new sentence, arguing that her husband abused her for more than a decade. She said she participated in Weyrick’s slaying out of fear of her husband.
The high court, though, ruled that she was ineligible, reasoning that the law does not explicitly allow for the undoing of a “valid, fully negotiated plea agreement.”
In a dissent, Justice P. Scott Neville argued that the majority opinion misconstrues the intent of the legislature, writing that the justices read “the statute narrowly to ensure it has very limited effect.”
State Sen. Robert Peters proposed a bill in February a few months after the decision to clarify that the law applies to defendants who pleaded guilty.
White-Domain was sharply critical of the Supreme Court decision, arguing that defendants often plead guilty under intense pressure.
Noting, though, that lower courts must follow the opinion, she instead contended, among other arguments, that the decision came too late to impact Redmond’s resentencing petition because the case was already in a pre-sentencing phase.
Hooper, though, said during the hearing in a Skokie branch court that because of the Wells decision, prosecutors had no discretion but to argue that Redmond is not eligible for resentencing.
Pavlus took the matter under advisement.
Even if the judge rules against her, Redmond could try again if the bill passes.
Redmond has about five years left to serve, but the years are ones her family is desperate to reclaim.
“I’m being hopeful,” Vadal Redmond said. “You have to, that’s what keeps you going.”
A role model
Vadal Redmond and her grandson, Shea Redmond, outside of the Skokie Courthouse on Friday, March 29, 2024. Vadal is the mother of Marseilles Redmond and Shea is the son of Marseilles Redmond. Marseilles Redmond is seeking to be resentenced and a reduction in the time she will spend in jail for the domestic violence-related killing of Narsell Love. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
After the hearing, Shea and Vadal Redmond were able to stand a few feet from Marseilles and say hello.
She blew kisses and wiped away tears.
Through her attorney, Redmond said she is deeply remorseful for killing Love, and was conflicted about pursuing the petition because of the impact on his family of dredging up details of the killing. Ultimately, though, she said she wanted to pursue it in order to raise awareness to potentially ease the path for other women.
Shea and Vadal Redmond hope to soon spend time with her outside of prison, shopping for clothes, sharing meals and visiting family.
Shea Redmond was raised by his grandmother, who was always protective of him learning the details of the killing, he said. But in his teens he began researching the case, looking for news articles and other public documents. He more recently learned of the allegations of abuse on behalf of his father.
“That was something I hadn’t known until recently,” he said. “It does add perspective. It does open things up and shine a different light on it.”
Redmond, though, said the revelations have pushed him to try to be an even better role model for future generations.
“At the end of the day, I am half of both of them,” he said. “I feel like that pushes me even further … to make sure I can be a good example for my other younger cousins.”
