Chicago Cop Killer Sentenced to Life in Prison for Brutal Slaying

Emonte Morgan Receives Life Sentence for Killing Chicago Police Officer

Emonte Mor­gan, 24, has been sen­tenced to a manda­to­ry life sen­tence plus an addi­tion­al 57 years in prison for the August 2021 mur­der of Chica­go police offi­cer Ella French and the wound­ing of her part­ner, Offi­cer Car­los Yanez Jr. Mor­gan was found guilty in March of first-degree mur­der, attempt­ed mur­der of a peace offi­cer, and pos­ses­sion of a firearm as a felon.

Emotional Victim Impact Statements Sway Judge

Dur­ing the sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, the court heard pow­er­ful vic­tim impact state­ments from the slain offi­cer’s moth­er, Eliz­a­beth French, and the wound­ed Offi­cer Yanez. 

Both described the dev­as­tat­ing emo­tion­al toll of the tragedy and their unwill­ing­ness to for­give Mor­gan for his actions.

Chilling Details of the Traffic Stop Shooting

Pros­e­cu­tors laid out the details of the inci­dent, stat­ing that Mor­gan opened fire on the offi­cers after they had stopped a vehi­cle being dri­ven by his broth­er Eric. 

Offi­cer Ella French was killed, while her part­ner Yanez was left par­tial­ly par­a­lyzed and blind in one eye from his injuries.

Ongoing Legal Proceedings and Plea Deals

In a sep­a­rate case, Mor­gan’s broth­er Eric plead­ed guilty last Sep­tem­ber to charges relat­ed to the inci­dent and was sen­tenced to just 7 years in prison as part of a plea deal. 

Anoth­er man, Jamel Danzy, was also sen­tenced to 2 1/2 years in fed­er­al prison for ille­gal­ly pur­chas­ing the hand­gun used to kill Offi­cer French.

The Lasting Trauma and Lack of Closure for Victims’ Families

The sen­tenc­ing hear­ing was an emo­tion­al­ly charged affair, with both the French and Yanez fam­i­lies express­ing their grief, anger, and lack of clo­sure over the dev­as­tat­ing loss. 

The judge’s deci­sion to impose the max­i­mum pos­si­ble sen­tence reflects the grav­i­ty of the crimes com­mit­ted against the two police officers.