PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — The life sentence for Stevie Linwood, Jr. was a foregone conclusion as it’s required by state law.
Linwood, 44, apologized to the families of Jakaiden Rynearson and Zaneta Winters, saying he didn’t really mean to harm anyone on that fateful Aug. 11, 2024, day when the two women were killed.
“I just want to say that no matter what the prosecutor said, I did love Zaneta,” he said. “I don’t know why people think that I’m a monster; I’m not a monster. The truth didn’t really come out. I just want to say sorry to both families.”
Peoria County Circuit Judge Sean Donahue noted he had no discretion on the sentence, but also, he said, it would not have been a tough call. He said Linwood killed two innocent people who “did nothing” that day.
The mood and the atmosphere on the second floor of the Peoria County Courthouse were still tense and it was still somber.
Family and friends of Rynearson and Winters filled one side of the second-floor courtroom. The other side had a few people for Linwood. Security was tight with four security guards in the room. A social worker with the state’s attorney’s and the coroner’s office read statements from the mothers of Winters and Rynearson.
Her voice was clear and firm but the words carried the heavy emotional toll the shootings took on the families. Words like never and forever were used.
The letter of Autumn Palmer, Jakaiden’s mother, noted “she didn’t even make it into adulthood before her life was taken from her. She was only 19 and her live was taken without a care.”
For Winters’ mother, Zelina, the pain has been taking care of her daughter’s son who has suffered greatly.
“He misses his mommy but he doesn’t miss you because he was there that day,” she wrote in her letter.
Linwood said he is a changed man and while he accepted responsibility, he said he never intended for things to happen.
Peoria County prosecutor David Gast would have nothing of it. He called Linwood a murderer and a coward, telling Donahue that Linwood shot both women from behind.
“For this defendant, there are no amount of bible verses that he can quote that can change what he is,” the veteran attorney said. “The next time the defiant will walk out of a prison unshackled and without armed guards is when he is in a pine box. And that’s appropriate.”
In February, a jury deliberated for about 45 minutes before finding Linwood, Jr. guilty of murder.
Rynearson, 20, died in late October, several weeks after the Aug. 11, 2024, shooting claimed the life of 35-year-old Winters, as a result of her injuries.
By all accounts, Rynearson, who was Winters’ neighbor, ran across the street when she heard gunshots and screaming. She “ran to the gunfire,’ Gast said during his closing statement to jurors.
“And for that bravery and for that courage and for that willingness to help a neighbor, she was shot three times by that man. Why? Because she was running towards him,” he said, mimicking the reason Linwood gave to the police the night of the shootings.
Winters was shot in the back of the head as she was trying to flee the home because Linwood “wanted her to shut up.”
At trial, two neighbors fingered Linwood as the man who shot the women. Both, as well as a Peoria police detective, testified they saw him walking “nonchalantly” away from the house, located in the 3400 block of El Vista Avenue, which is just off Sterling Avenue.
The murder weapon was found on the route Linwood was walking and matched up with the shell casings found at the scene.
On Friday, Linwood said the truth didn’t all come out at his trial, where he didn’t testify.
“I didn’t plan on doing it. No record that I intended to harm anyone. I’m a changed man,” he said.
Winters’ mother said her daughter had told her that Linwood had once put the barrel of a gun on her neck. Zalina said it was clear to her that Linwood had been planning her daughter’s death.
The families, however, saw it differently. Palmer said her daughter, 19, will never get married, have a child, buy a car or live her life all “because of someone who couldn’t control his own anger.”
“No mother should ever have to see their child take their first and last breath,” she wrote.
Tstory was originally reported by WMBD-TV and published on CIProud.com.
