MADIGAN: PULASKI MAN SENTENCED FOR ROLE IN 2004 MURDER AND WOUNDING OF AREA SOLDIERS

Chicago − Attorney General Lisa Madigan today said a Pulaski County man will serve five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) for his role in the shooting death of a Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, soldier and the wounding of another soldier outside of a rural Pulaski County nightspot in 2004.

Circuit Court Judge Mark Clarke yesterday sentenced Derrick Tucker, 22, of Pulaski, to five years each for his conviction for burglary and unlawful possession of a stolen firearm, and two years for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. The sentences will be served concurrently. In a bench trial last month, Judge Clarke found Tucker guilty of the three felonies, but acquitted him of first degree murder and attempted first degree murder charges in the death of Staff Sgt. Alfonza Beasley and the wounding of Staff Sgt. Floyd Lewis.

The case stemmed from an October 2004 altercation outside of a nightclub in rural Pulaski County between the soldiers and Tucker and his cousin, Emmett Lane, 24, also of Pulaski. In June 2005, Lane was sentenced to 51 years in the IDOC after a Pulaski County jury found him guilty of murder and attempted murder charges.

During Lane’s trial, jurors heard that the shootings followed an altercation in which Beasley and Lewis confronted Lane and Tucker after they discovered that Lewis’ pickup had been broken into while they were attending a party at the club and a .45 caliber handgun belonging to Lewis had been taken by Tucker. A rifle that Beasley retrieved from the pickup was wrestled away from him by Lane who then fired two shots into Beasley’s head. Lane then turned the weapon on Lewis and shot him in the chest and head.

Tucker is being held in the Tri-County Detention Center in Ullin pending his transfer to the IDOC.

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