A Brookfield man charged with the Dec. 10, 2006, killing of La Grange resident Howard Howell pled guilty to second-degree murder in Bridgeview Court today, May 27.

In a plea agreement, Antonio Jordan Marshall, 21, was sentenced to serve 15 years with the Illinois Department of Corrections with two years mandatory parole upon release by Judge Colleen McSweeny Moore.

Howell, 41, was found shortly after 3 p.m. lying in a parkway with a single gunshot wound to the chest outside of the Community Center, 200 Washington Ave., after police received a cellular phone call reporting a shooting. He died at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.

Marshall, who was 18 at the time of the murder, was arrested on Dec. 12, 2006, and charged with first-degree murder following an investigation by La Grange police and the South Suburban Task Force.

At the time, Police Chief Michael Holub described Howell as “a local guy that everyone kind of knew, the neighborhood guy.”

“It wasn't unusual for him to walk up and down the blocks and know everyone on the porches,” he said. “Even the officers knew him by face and by name.”

Marshall was immediately taken into custody to begin serving his sentence after pleading guilty, Holub said.