Belleville man sentenced for shooting man in jaw

A Belleville man shot another man in the jaw in August 2016, and now will spend six years in prison.

Jamaal Howard, 35, was sentenced Thursday for aggravated battery with the discharge of a firearm after a plea deal. The deal sentenced him for the battery charge, and dismissed four other gun-related charges — aggravated discharge of a firearm, aggravated battery with a firearm, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and possession of a gun with a defaced serial number.

Howard was also formally charged by the grand jury with three attempted first-degree murder charges, but the state dismissed that part of the indictment. Those three charges alleged that Howard shot at a woman driving a car and a woman running alongside the car, along with shooting Harvey Binford in the jaw.

In a partial transcript of a 911 call made Aug. 2, 2016, a man told dispatchers that “my wife, my cousin and his baby mama been shot,” according to court records. He told police they needed to come to the Roosevelt Homes in East St. Louis and said a “dude came outside, started acting crazy and had a long clip in the gun.”

Howard will have to serve 85 percent of his six-year sentence. He’ll receive credit for the year and five months he served while waiting for his trial.

In July 2017, Howard was sentenced to a year in prison for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon with no ID card. He was convicted of battery and violating an order of protection. He was convicted of aggravated battery in 2006 and was sentenced to three years in prison. In the same case, attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm charges were dismissed.

This story was originally published January 8, 2018 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Belleville man sentenced for shooting man in jaw."