A man convicted of murdering a Dunbar Vocational High School freshman in 2014 was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison, according to prosecutors and court records.
Ahbir Sardin, 20, was found guilty of first-degree murder in September in the slaying of Venzel Richardson in April 2014 when Sardin was 17. Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas Gainer on Tuesday sentenced Sardin to serve at least 40 years in prison, according to court records and Cook County state’s atttorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. Sardin was given credit for 1,019 days already served in jail.
On the evening of Feb. 12, 2014, Venzel, 14, and a group of friends had just left a convenience store near East 61st Street and South King Drive. As the group began walking toward South Vernon Avenue, a white minivan drove down Vernon and stopped, prosecutors said.
When the group made it to Vernon, the van pulled alongside, Sardin slid the driver’s side passenger door open and fired multiple times at the group, prosecutors said.
Venzel was hit once in the back of the head and other parts of his body. After he was shot, Venzel ran to a nearby gangway and died, prosecutors said.
Witnesses later identified Sardin as the shooter in a photo array and police lineup.
"My baby is gone because people just don’t have no remorse and no feeling," Venzel’s mother, Laveta Richardson, said the day after the fatal shooting. "My home will never be the same again."
Sardin had faced up to life in prison in the murder.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
