PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) -- A Peoria County man has been sentenced after being found guilty in August for killing his girlfriend and leaving her to die in a ditch in 2021.

Joshua McGee, 39, was sentenced to 55 years in prison on Thursday by Peoria County Chief Circuit Judge Katherine Gorman for the Aug. 22, 2021, shooting death of 37-year-old Ashley Tankersley.

After the judge read her decision, a noise that sounded like a table being slammed could be heard in the courtroom, and then McGee was tackled and taken out of the courtroom.

He was also convicted, according to online court records, of being a felon in possession of a weapon.

Approximately two dozen people filed into the courtroom, with McGee's family on the right and Tankersley's family on the left, sporting shirts with her face on

See Full Page