Reginald Duckworth / Photo from Chicago Police
BY LEEANN SHELTON
Sun-Times Media
A Maywood man was sentenced to nearly two decades in prison Friday after he pleaded guilty to stabbing his cousin to death after a South Shore birthday party.
Reginald Duckworth, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and Judge Clayton Crane sentenced him to 19 years in prison, according to court records.
Duckworth was part of a group of people that attended a birthday party at his cousin Willie Wilson’s home in the 2500 block of East 73rd Place on Jan. 26, 2013, prosecutors said.
After the party, Duckworth asked a woman for money multiple times. Wilson, 32, told Duckworth to stop and the two got into an argument in the basement, prosecutors said.
The argument turned physical and Duckworth punched Wilson, prosecutors said. Witnesses tried to break up the fight, but Duckworth resisted and pushed an arthritic 60-year-old man to the ground before throwing Wilson over a table and stabbing him multiple times, prosecutors said.
Wilson told another person in the basement that Duckworth stabbed him. Witnesses saw Duckworth run away with a knife in his hand, and Wilson died at the scene, authorities said.
Duckworth, of the 1700 block of West Madison in Maywood, was also recommended for drug treatment as part of his sentence, according to court records. He will receive credit for 664 days spent in the Cook County Jail.