By Jean Lotus

Editor

The Forest Park man charged with shooting a Bellwood man over a cellphone in a 7-Eleven parking lot in April 2012 was convicted of attempted first-degree murder and sentenced to 31 years in state prison Thursday, Forest Park police said.

Gregory Hych, 32, was convicted in a jury trial Sept. 9. On Oct 10, Judge Paula Daleo sentenced him to 31 years on one count of attempted first-degree murder and 25 years for a second offense. Information about that offense was not immediately available from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

Hych will serve both sentences concurrently, said Forest Park Deputy Chief Tom Aftanas.

Hych found the Bellwood man's phone on a parkway in April 2012. When the owner called his own phone, Hych answered and the two agreed to meet at the 7-Eleven at Roosevelt Road and Desplaines Avenue on a Saturday afternoon for its return. When the owner arrived, Hych demanded $100 to return the phone police said.

The two argued and Hych shot the victim in the neck with a silver revolver. Video surveillance from the 7-Eleven showed Hych and a woman named Kenesha Sheridan, then 21, immediately before the incident, according to the police report of the incident.

Hych and Sheridan were arrested a week later when Forest Park police nabbed them pulling up in a taxi outside a foreclosed house used by squatters as a "party house" at York and Dunlop Avenues. A witness' description of Hych's chipped tooth and the pinging of the cellphone as it was being used in south Forest Park helped police identify Hych, police said in May 2012.

The victim, who was taken to Loyola University Medical Center following the shooting, was able to testify at Hych's trial, Aftanas said.

Sheridan, who before her arrest performed as a dancer under the name Kenesha "Queen Murda Mommy" Sheridan was found not guilty of attempted first-degree murder, Aftanas said.

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