Sterling man gets life sentence in South Carolina murder

GEORGETOWN, South Carolina – A Sterling man who was wanted in a stabbing there will serve the rest of his life in prison after beating a man to death with a wrench in South Carolina, where he fled to avoid arrest.

Jorden E. Johnson, 30, formerly of Rock Falls, and Latisha D. Evans, 23, of Rock Falls and formerly of Sterling, East Moline and Rockford, were fugitives for nearly three weeks before being arrested in Sterling.

The two were wanted for bludgeoning Jack Kendree Jr. to death in a Georgetown motel 19 days earlier, on June 28, and for critically injuring a 50-year-old woman who was staying with him.

They were charged in Georgetown County Court with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and grand larceny.

At the time of the murder, Johnson was wanted in a stabbing that happened Aug. 17, 2019, in the 1400 block of East 14th Street in Sterling, where police said a man was attacked during an argument after a party. Charges hadn’t been filed until June 3, 2020, and bond was set at $250,000.

A week ago, on April 26 – the day before Johnson’s murder trial was to begin – he and Evans pleaded guilty, Johnson to all four charges and Evans to accessory after the fact of murder and accessory after the fact of attempted murder, Jimmy Richardson, the state’s Fifteenth Circuit solicitor (prosecutor) said in a news release.

In addition to life without parole for Kendree’s murder, Johnson was sentenced to 30 years each for attempted murder and armed robbery, and to five years for grand larceny, the maximum sentences allowed. The terms will run concurrently.

Evans, who cooperated with investigators and who has no criminal history, was sentenced under South Carolina’s Youthful Offender Act to up to six years. The term will depend on how she performs under its terms.

The act offers programs designed to help keep young offenders from reoffending, and her sentence was part of plea negotiations made with the input of the victims’ family members, the release said.

According to Richardson’s release:

Johnson and Evans landed in Georgetown when their van broke down. The day of the murder, Johnson knocked on the door of the Rodeway Inn room where Kendree and the woman were staying, which was a few doors away his and Evans’ room.

The two, both of Georgetown, knew Johnson from the Walmart parking lot where the van broke down, and they let him into the room, where he immediately attacked them with a large wrench he brought with him.

It later was found in Johnson and Evans’ room.

Kendree died of head trauma in his room, and the woman suffered multiple fractures of the bones in her face, jaw, and skull, as well as a broken arm.

Johnson took Kendree’s wallet and car keys, then left them for dead.

The woman was found 11 hours later by hotel staff outside the room. Kendree’s bloody body was found inside.

Johnson and Evans drove Kendree’s car to Maine then back to Illinois, using Kendree’s debit card along the way.

Johnson, who had hair past his shoulders, also shaved his head to avoid detection.

On July 4, 2020, the stolen car was found on fire east of Harmon.

A task force with members of the Lee and Whiteside County sheriffs departments, Sterling, Dixon and Rock Falls police departments and state police, with assistance from the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, was formed to focus on their apprehension.

They were arrested July 17, 2020, in an unoccupied home in the 1500 block of East Fourth Street in Sterling after a standoff with task force members.

According to court documents, a relative in Illinois helped Johnson and Evans elude police, the release said.

Johnson’s cousin, Alexiss N. Johnson, 26, of Rock Falls was charged Aug. 4, 2020, in Whiteside County with two counts of aiding and concealing a fugitive, Richardson said Wednesday in a text to Sauk Valley Media.

She was sentenced Nov. 30, 2022, to 1 1/2 years’ probation and 180 days in jail on both charges, with the sentences to run concurrently, court records show.

Jorden Johnson still is charged in Whiteside County with being a felon in possession of a weapon and four counts of aggravated battery in the stabbing.

He also has an extensive felony history in Lee, Ogle and Whiteside counties dating back to crimes that occurred in 2009.

In 2017, Johnson was convicted of aggravated battery in Lee County and sentenced to 3 years, and to theft in Ogle County and sentenced to 2 years.

He was convicted of aggravated battery in Whiteside County in 2011 and sentenced to 3 years, and of residential burglary and sentenced to 6 years.

He was convicted in 2010 of burglary in Whiteside County and was given 2 years’ probation, but he violated the terms, probation was revoked, and he was sentenced to 3 years in prison.