Wednesday would have been Sonya Massey’s 37th birthday. Instead of a celebration for his daughter’s life, however, James Wilburn of Pine Bluff stood with family members and attorneys as the announcement was made that a $10 million settlement had been reached in Massey’s death.
The settlement money, to be split equally between Massey’s two children, an 18-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter, brings to a close some of the emotionally charged situation that started seven months ago when Massey was killed in Sangamon County in Illinois.
Massey had called the authorities to report a prowler. But it was Massey who was killed in her own kitchen. Now Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson is facing charges of first degree murder.
Wilburn said he has heard people say the family could have held out for more money if they had waited for Grayson to be put on trial and “properly convicted.”
“But there’s nothing to say that he will be convicted,” said Wilburn, who lived and worked in San Diego and then retired to Pine Bluff several years ago. “That county has no insurance. They have a contingency account of $12 million so we set the amount at $10 million and they agreed after kicking and screaming. We could have waited, but we didn’t want to take our chances with 12 people in a box. We could have gotten old farmers who don’t feel that Black lives are worth anything.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
After Massey’s death, Wilburn found himself in the middle of the family’s reaction to it. One of the first things he did was to hire Ben Crump, a nationally regarded civil rights attorney who has been involved in a number of high-profile cases. That move was applauded by unexpected people associated with the case, he said.
“The coroner, the state’s attorney, the head of the Illinois State Police who was investigating the case — after we hired Mr. Crump, I told them I could no longer talk to them directly and that they would have to communicate with me through my attorney,” Wilburn said. “They all said something to the effect of ‘You made a good decision, Mr. Wilburn.’ That was before we had even looked at the body cam footage.”
And it was the body cam footage that played a big role in the case, Wilburn said.
“Some people were saying we shouldn’t believe our lying eyes,” he said. “But we saw what we saw. Pictures don’t lie. There was no question about liability.”
Even at that, Wilburn said he has not been able to watch the entirety of the body cam footage because he “can’t unsee” the most painful parts.
Wilburn said every day is difficult day for him and his family, but one aspect of the case brings him a bit of satisfaction and it is the bill that has been introduced in Illinois that was filed in response to what happened to his daughter. The bill, named for his daughter, would change how law enforcement candidates are screened before they are hired.
As the murder case was being investigated, it was revealed that Grayson had worked for six departments in four years and that he had had two convictions for driving under the influence. After the first conviction, he was kicked out of the Army. And reporting by Capitol News Illinois discovered that other sheriff’s deputies had had similar problems and were still employed by the sheriff’s office.
Wilburn said there were enough “red flags” that Grayson “should never have had a badge and a gun.”
“They kept sliding this guy under the door and hiring him,” Wilburn said. “This Illinois bill should echo all across the country. Agencies hire people like this to save money because they don’t have to pay for someone to go through the police academy. Well, they didn’t save any money by hiring this person. If Illinois is the bellwether state on this, then let them be it.”
Wilburn said he has been heartened by the support he has received from people in the Pine Bluff area. He said several elected officials, including Mayor Vivian Flowers, called him on his daughter’s birthday “because they knew it would be a tough day for me,” he said. “That really means a lot to me, to have the mayor of my town think enough of us to do that.”
The public support, he said, has been far and wide for him.
“Sonya was everybody’s daughter,” Wilburn said. “Everyone has been so magnanimous to me. I can be at the grocery store or getting my car worked on and everybody hugs you and tells you how sorry they are. But there’s a lot of anger, too. This has affected the whole county.”