GUILTY IL - William Strickland, 72, shot to death, Chicago, 2 March 2013

William Strickland was named after his grandfather and lived with the elderly man on the South Side. But the young man was under the influence of another senior living in the home, his grandmother.

When she suggested he should kill off his grandfather so they could spend his money, the younger William Strickland pulled the trigger, Cook County prosecutors said.

William Strickland, 22, was found guilty of his grandfather’s murder after a jury deliberated for 2 1/2 hours Thursday night at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

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What would drive someone to kill their own grandfather? Apparently, all it took for this guy was a new phone, a pair of shoes, a tattoo -- and a request from grandma.

While Cook County Judge James Linn said it was sad that the adults in William Strickland’s life took him “down to the road of ruin,” he said Strickland had to take responsibility, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

The 22-year-old didn’t make any comments before he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his 72-year-old grandfather’s murder.

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A 67-year-old woman was sentenced to 18 years in prison Wednesday for urging her grandson to kill his namesake grandfather, William Strickland, outside their Far South Side home in 2013.

Janet Strickland encouraged 23-year-old William Strickland to shoot her husband of nearly 30 years six times in the back on March 2,
2013, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Prosecutors said she was tired of her husband’s unwillingness to spend money and wanted “nice things.”

Janet Strickland was convicted in April of numerous charges, including murder and solicitation of murder, Cook County Circuit Court records show.

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