WILLIAMSON COUNTY — A Williamson County judge Wednesday sentenced a Hamilton County man to 65 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the April 2015 murder of Michael Reed of Marion.

Williamson County State’s Attorney Brandon Zanotti says 38-year-old Jack Thomas, Jr. was tried and convicted of murder in a May 2018 trial in Williamson County. The trial lasted ten days and was prosecuted by State’s Attorney Brandon Zanotti and Assistant State’s Attorneys Lisa Irvin and Mandy Combs. Thomas was represented by Morgan Scroggins and Phillip Baldwin of Scroggins Law Office out of Granite City.

The jury deliberated for approximately two hours in May before rendering its guilty verdict.