Court hearings are moving forward in Morgan County in the case of a Pontiac, Illinois man who has spent the better part of the last two decades trying to have a plea deal and prison sentence vacated.
The Journal Courier reports that 46 year old Shon Watts was serving a 12 year sentence in the Jacksonville Correctional Center for home invasion in 2006 when he allegedly attacked and sexually assaulted a female Illinois Department of Corrections employee.
Watts was charged with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, one count of attempted first degree murder and one count of aggravated battery.
Watts accepted a plea deal on reduced charges and was sentenced to 30 additional years in prison.
Since then, Watts has filed numerous motions seeking to withdraw his guilty plea and have his sentence vacated.
The reasons for the appeals have ranged from telling the court his plea was involuntary because he was under the influence of psychotropic medications and not mentally competent, to claiming his constitutional rights were violated, to having ineffective council.
Watts had received psychological evaluations twice and was deemed mentally fit so at the time the appeals were dismissed.
But recently, the courts reversed the dismissal of Watts’ post-conviction petitions.
Hearings on the petition are being heard by Judge David Cherry.
Watts has a court appearance scheduled for May 6th.