JEFFERSON COUNTY — A 24-year-old Springfield man was sentenced Thursday in Jefferson County court to nearly two decades in prison after he had earlier pleaded guilty to being an armed habitual criminal.

Shonn Bacon had been charged with Class X felony being an armed habitual criminal and Class X felony aggravated vehicular hijacking with a weapon.

The vehicle hijacking charge was dismissed in exchange for Bacon’s open plea on the habitual criminal charge.

Bacon was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison. Class X felonies are punishable by between 6 and 30 years.

In December of 2017, Bacon hijacked an occupied vehicle in the Arby’s parking lot in Mt. Vernon armed with a handgun he had reportedly used during an armed altercation inside Applebee’s moments earlier.

Mt. Vernon police were responding to a call about the Applebee’s incident when they entered a brief foot pursuit with Bacon who exited the hijacked vehicle upon their arrival.

After initially refusing to drop his weapon, Bacon eventually complied but resisted arrest before being taken into custody.

It was determined at that time that he was on parole from the Illinois Department of Corrections stemming from a 2015 conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm in Sangamon County.