WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderMan sentenced in murder of teen

Man sentenced in murder of teen

A Rockford man is sentenced to 35 years in prison for First Degree Murder.

Chad Bennett was sentenced Monday for the 2008 murder of eighteen year old Nikolas Black. Black was shot after confronting a group of people that had approached the car he was riding in near Victory Lane and Superior Avenue in Machesney Park. The suspects then fled the scene in a white car.

Police later interviewed the suspects and found that they had mistaken the car Black was in for the car of someone they had had a disagreement with and got out of their vehicle to confront them. Black was shot and killed in the ensuing confrontation. Witnesses identified Chad Bennett as the person that killed Black.

Bennett was sentenced to a total of 35 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for First Degree Murder on January 23. He pled guilty on October 27, 2011.