ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis man whose first-degree murder conviction was vacated last year avoided retrial by pleading guilty in a fatal 2015 shooting.
Benjamin Chatman, 35, pleaded guilty on Friday to second-degree murder in the shooting death of Gregory Jordan, 35, of Jennings. He will be sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Jordan was fatally shot on Sept. 7, 2015, in the 1400 block of Shawmut Place in St. Louis' Hamilton Heights neighborhood. Police said Chatman shot him after an argument over drugs and money.
In 2017, a jury found Chatman guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action, resulting in a mandatory life sentence without parole. He appealed the conviction, saying that he was never informed he was facing life without parole, according to a press release. He said he believed that 20 years was the most he'd receive for the conviction.
Chatman's original lawyer testified at a 2021 evidentiary hearing that he thought the range of punishment for all Class A felonies, including first-degree murder, was 10 years to life in prison, the release said.
In 2022, a judge vacated Chatman's convictions after finding that his lawyer misadvised him about the sentencing law for first-degree murder. It led him to reject a plea deal for 20 years in prison.
“Had (Chatman) known the Court had no discretion to sentence him to less
than life without parole, he alleges he would have accepted the State’s
plea bargain and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder,” Hettenbach wrote
in his September 2022 order.
Chatman was set for retrial next week but instead pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Prosecutors dismissed the armed criminal action cause.
