Update: Marion County jurors returned a verdict of GUILTY Thursday after just over four hours of deliberation. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for 2 p.m. November 20, 2020.

MARION COUNTY — Following multiple outbursts from the defendant in court, a Marion County jury was handed the case Thursday morning of a 46-year-old Chicago man accused of the 2018 shooting death of a Centralia woman in her home.

Lorenzo Patton was ultimately removed from the courtroom Thursday morning after he ignored warnings about his outbursts. He took the stand Wednesday in his own defense and claimed he had no reason to kill Precious Jones, calling her his friend. Patton denied having a TV taken from the victim’s home and said a man wanted to trade the TV for heroin.

Multiple former inmates testified in the two-day trial. Charita Lenox claimed that while she was held with Patton in the Coles County Jail, he admitted to her that he had killed Jones.

Still, others testified that while they were held in the Marion County Jail with Christopher Carroll, the former boyfriend of the victim’s daughter, he confessed to the murder of Precious Jones.

Carroll’s cellmate Larry Woodward told the court he overheard a conversation between Carroll and another inmate and that Carroll said Jones was working with police and someone needed to take care of her.

Another inmate, Andrew Sloat, testified that while he and Carroll were out of jail in March, they had gone to purchase drugs and Carroll had told him about going to Jones’ home and shooting her in the living room. Sloat did tell the court that Carroll jumped off a second-story porch to flee with the $1,300 he had given him to purchase those drugs.

Patton is charged with first-degree murder and as a habitual criminal, there is the possibility of mandatory life in prison.

He could also receive a 25-year to natural life sentence enhancement due to a firearm being used in the commission of the crime.