EDWARDSVILLE – A Madison County judge sentenced 46-year-old Gary Johnson of East St. Louis to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Thursday, April 23, 2026, for the 2025 murder of Portia Rowland in Collinsville.
Associate Judge Neil Schroeder handed down the sentence after finding Johnson guilty in a bench trial on March 9, 2026. Prosecutors said Johnson shot Rowland outside her home on Jan. 21, 2025, in a residential Collinsville neighborhood.
Court evidence showed Johnson admitted to investigators that he had been hired to kill Rowland and was promised $10,000 for carrying out the murder. Prosecutors allege co-defendant Sammy J. Shafer Jr. arranged the payment, while co-defendant Marty D. Shaw drove Johnson on the day of the killing.
Press Conference Of Gary Johnson Sentencing
During sentencing, Rowland’s stepfather, Bob Miller, delivered an emotional victim impact statement, urging the court to impose the maximum sentence.
“She lived in stark contrast to this wretch, and the other two wretches involved in this, who all embody exactly opposite values,” Miller said. “They conspired, planned, and acted to assassinate Portia, extinguishing a beautiful life full of promise and destroying her family and friends in the process.”
Defense attorney Mary Copeland challenged the constitutionality of Illinois’ mandatory life sentence statute, arguing that mandatory life sentences raise serious constitutional concerns.
She filed a motion asking the court to reconsider Johnson’s sentence and declare the law unconstitutional, but Schroeder denied the request.
Johnson plans to testify in Shafer’s upcoming trial, according to Copeland. Both Shafer and Shaw remain in the Madison County Jail awaiting trial.
Johnson was previously sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 1997 murder of Darryonne Woods and was released in 2017.
Shafer, 37, of Caseyville, faces charges of first-degree murder and solicitation of murder. Shaw, 34, of Collinsville, is also charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors say Rowland had been in a relationship with Shafer’s wife while Shafer and his wife were going through a divorce.
