A Montgomery man has been sentenced to natural life in prison without parole for the execution-style murder of his wife on October 31, 2022, at their home in Montgomery.
On Friday, Timothy Gordon, 48, was sentenced by Kane County Circuit Court Judge Clint Hull to 50 years in prison for the first degree murder of his wife, Yahaira. In addition, because Gordon used a firearm to carry out the murder, he faced an additional sentence of anywhere between 25 years to natural life in prison without parole.
Approximately six weeks before the murder, the victim had filed for divorce from the defendant, but was allowing him to live in the basement while she lived in a bedroom with her mother, her aunt, and four children on the second floor of the house.
On that Halloween morning of 2022, the defendant found out that his wife may have been in the process of getting an order of protection against him which would have expelled him from the house. He became upset and pushed his way into the bedroom, walked across the room to where the victim was sitting and put a gun near her left temple and fired one shot, killing Yahaira instantly. Her mother, her aunt, a two-year-old and seven-year-old were in the room at the time of the shooting.
The victim, fearing that there would be a confrontation with the defendant, was video recording on her cellphone at the time of the shooting.
In sentencing the defendant to natural life in prison without parole, Judge Hull also took into account the defendant’s criminal history, which included convictions for armed violence and robbery in Cook County in 1994, aggravated battery with a firearm in Champaign County in 2000, aggravated DUI in Cook County in 2011, and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon in Mississippi in 2017. He was still on parole for that last offense when he murdered his wife.
Gordon is believed to be the first defendant in Kane County who has been sentenced to a term of natural life in prison based on the firearm sentencing enhancement factor.
“The defendant received the life sentence he deserved for doing to Yahaira what she didn’t deserve,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Greg Sams. “She did not deserve to die in this utterly contemptible way. She did not deserve to have all of the memories robbed from her that she would have made with her children as they grew – high school, proms, weddings, grandchildren.
“Couple the despicable act the defendant committed on October 31, 2022, with his extensive criminal history, and it is simple to see why Judge Hull agreed with the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office that society needs to be protected from the defendant for the rest of his life. Nothing can bring Yahaira back for her family and loved ones who traveled thousands of miles to attend the sentencing hearing. But their presence, and their words through the victim impact statements that were read in court, are testimony to Yahaira’s beautiful life that was taken away so senselessly.”
