ROCK ISLAND -- Dentrell Brown of Rock Island pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison for the shooting death of 14-year-old Damien Howard in Rock Island County Circuit Court Thursday, Jan. 12.
Brown had been charged with first-degree murder, one count of aggravated battery with a firearm and one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm in connection with the 2012 crime, but under the terms of the plea agreement the charge was reduced to 2nd degree murder. He was sentenced to 15 years in state prison, according to a release from Rock Island Police.
Damien Howard was suffering from a gunshot wound to his chest when he was found, in a vehicle that had crashed into a light pole in the 1100 block of 6th Avenue in Rock Island, just after midnight January 15, 2012. Damien later died at a local hospital.