



After hearing the statement, and one from an aunt, the judge sentenced Jones to 90 years in prison for the death of Charinez Jefferson nearly five years ago.



Prosecutors say Jones was angry after he was shot in the thigh earlier in the day in August of 2011. He later spotted a rival gang member walking with Jefferson to a Marquette Park corner store and fired twice at him and missed, prosecutors said.



Jones then shot Jefferson eight times at point-blank range as she pleaded for her life, according to a witness and prosecutors.



"She kept begging for her life, and he still shot her," a witness, Romell VanTrease, 31, testified during the trial. "She begged for her life ... said, 'I'm pregnant.' "



Doctors couldn't save Jefferson's life but successfully delivered her son, though he was severely brain-damaged after being deprived of oxygen. His skull was also fractured when his mother collapsed to the street.



In an interview with the Tribune in 2014, Jefferson said doctors told her the boy -- named Kahmani -- would remain in a persistent vegetative state, unable to see, hear or breathe on his own. Jefferson said they eventually urged her to remove him from life support, telling her his condition would never improve.



But she decided against it. "I couldn't see turning the machine off on him," she told the Tribune. "Who am I to judge whether he lives or dies, OK? I was just grateful that he's still here."



In her impact statement, drawn up before she died in February, Jefferson spoke of both Kahmani and Jefferson's first son.



"Maybe with one more shot, you would have taken his life too," she said. "It's kind of sad when his brother asks, 'Grandma, when is he going to get out of bed and play with me?' You not only took my daughter's life, you basically took his life too. I pray every day that God shows him favor and that one day he will be able to enjoy some parts of life."



Still, Jefferson said she "had to find a way in my heart to forgive you ... I had to let go of anger, resentment, bitterness and hatred."