Illinois Judge Rules Shooting Was Self-Defense, but Armed Citizen Could Still Face Prison Sentence

A judge in Adams County, Illinois has cleared a man charged for shooting two people in a confrontation at a shopping center in 2024, but the armed citizen is still potentially facing several years behind bars. 

Alan Christopher Pacheco and his girlfriend were at a TJ Maxx in Quincy, Illinois when his girlfriend complained that a man was staring at her. Pacheco confronted Islam Woodson and the pair exchanged words before Woodson’s cousin Terence Horton got involved as well; allegedly hinting that he had a gun in a bag he was carrying and threatening Pacheco. 

Pacheco and his girlfriend disengaged from the two men and continued shopping. But when the got to their car and Pacheco tried to back out of hte parking space, he saw Horton and Woodson in a vehicle that was stopped behind his own car, preventing him from backing up. 

That’s when the defense says Horton and Woodson walked up to the driver’s side window, allegedly making threats to Pacheco, saying “do you wanna fight?” before allegedly assaulting Pacheco while he was in the car.

Pacheco said he feared for his life and pulled his firearm out, and ended up firing two shots at Horton.

Woodson ran towards Petco after the first shot, Pacheco followed him and then fired two shots in Woodson’s direction, but missed.

Now, the judge in this case has far more information than I do, but I was surprised to see that even the shots fired when Woodson was supposedly running away were also deemed to be defensive in nature. 

So if Pacheco was deemed to be justified in his use of force, why does he still face sentencing in June?

Pacheco was charged with two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, one count aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon, and one count of aggravated battery. One count of first degree murder was dismissed during Monday morning’s trial.

Judge Henze found Pacheco acted in self-defense, but did find him guilty of a Class Four Felony for Aggravated Unlawful Possession of a Weapon.

Because Pacheco had a loaded firearm in his vehicle and did not possess a valid Illinois carry permit, he’s now facing the possibility of a three-year prison sentence. 

It doesn’t appear that Pacheco was actually prohibited from possessing a firearm. He just didn’t go through all of the steps to acquire the Second Amendment permission slip before having a gun in his car. In 29 states, that wouldn’t be an issue, but Pacheco has the misfortune of living in a state that makes it a felony offense to transport or possess a loaded firearm in a vehicle without a carry permit. 

And thanks to that felony conviction, Pacheco isn’t able to legally carry a gun in the future, at least not without going through the cumbersome process of having his rights restored. That process is not automatic in Illinois, and it’s unlikely that Pacheco would get very far if he initiated the process within the next few years, even if he’s lucky enough to avoid prison. 

Given the number of cases I’ve seen out of Chicago where individuals accused of violent crimes are allowed to plead down to carrying a gun without a license and are given nothing more than probation, I hope that the judge in charge of Pacheco’s sentencing will spare him from the state’s penal system. Pacheco’s due in court on June 17 to learn his fate, and we’ll try to do a follow up once his sentence has been handed down. 

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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