Richard Magnan / Photo from Chicago Police
BY LEEANN SHELTON
Sun-Times Media
An alleged gang member has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to accidentally shooting a friend while waving a gun during a Fourth of July celebration.
Richard Magnan, 35, pleaded guilty to being an armed habitual criminal and involuntary manslaughter Monday before Judge Matthew Coghlan, who sentenced him to 11 years in prison, according to court and prison records.
Magnan, who has numerous facial tattoos, including one that reads, “F– the world,” was shot his friend, Joel Bentley, early July 5, prosecutors said.
The two friends were at a Fourth of July party before walking to a Walgreens parking lot in the 6200 block of South Austin Avenue, prosecutors said.
It was there that Magnan grabbed a gun from his truck and started waving it around, prosecutors said. Magnan’s friends told him to put the gun away, but before he could it discharged and struck the 30-year-old Bentley in the abdomen.
Bentley, of the 5000 block of South Keating Avenue, died hours later at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Magnan initially fled the scene, but was later arrested in a Willowbrook hotel, according to prosecutors, who said he admitted to shooting his friend. Both men were purported members of the 2-6 street gang, prosecutors claimed.
Magnan, of the 2600 block of West 90th Place in Evergreen Park, will receive credit for 154 days spent in jail since his arrest, according to court records.