A Peoria man will be re-sentenced next month for a 2015 murder after his first conviction was overturned four years ago.
Darren D. Brown, 32, was sentenced to 63 years in prison in 2017 for the murder of Nikko Smith and for shooting Charles Shelton in a house on West Kettelle Street on Peoria's South Side.
In November 2021, the Illinois 3rd District Appellate Court overturned that decision, finding that Judge John Vespa erred when he allowed Peoria County prosecutors to submit Brown's phone records into evidence as a business record. That was in violation of a procedural rule that was in effect at the time of the trial, but later changed.
Those phone records proved key to destroying the credibility of Brown and an eyewitness who had both testified they didn't know each other and hadn't contacted each other.
Officials say Brown ordered the Smith and Shelton down on the floor at gunpoint, and told them he was going to take their money and drugs. Shelton was shot when he tried to get up, and Smith was shot in the head when he fought back as Brown tried to leave, prosecutors said.
Shelton has since died of unrelated natural causes.
The case was re-tried in a three-day trial this month in Peoria County. Brown was again convicted. Sentencing is slated for Dec. 30.
