Man Convicted In Informant’s Death Gets 60 Year Sentence

(AP) – A central Illinois man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for killing a police informant to keep her from testifying in a drug case.
Marquelle Palmer of Bloomington in May was found guilty of murder in the death of Melissa Woods, whose body was found in 2012 in the basement of a boarded-up building in Chicago.
Woods was to testify in a drug case targeting Palmer, his brother and more than a dozen others accused of trafficking cocaine out of a Bloomington car dealership. The 32-year-old Palmer is serving a 14-year sentence on a federal conviction in connection to his role in the drug ring.
Palmer showed little reaction Friday as Cook County Circuit Judge Stanley Sacks handed down the sentence.
Sacks said Palmer’s crime was just against Woods, but also a crime against the entire judicial system.