Sonny Pilgrim
SALINE CO., Ill.---The young man at the center of a massive debacle in Eldorado last year has been sentenced to Illinois Department of Corrections.
At a previously-scheduled pretrial hearing yesterday, Sonny Pilgrim, 24, went ahead and entered a plea to two of his charges, each of them filed separately: Armed Robbery in a July 2014 case, and Possession of Contraband in a Penal Institution, filed later in the year (October) after Pilgrim was found to have a homemade knife in the Saline County Detention Center.
Pilgrim, who is from Tomasville, Georgia, was in Eldorado last July 23 raising hell with some of the locals (many of those of the criminally-inclined as well) when he was taken to Ferrell Hospital on a fake "drug ingestion" medical issue, then escaped, went to the home of his girlfriend, Courtney Godwin, pretended to hold her hostage with a weapon (now being listed as a "sword," although it was originally filed as a knife) and "kidnapped" her from her grandparents' home...taking their car, as well.
The two were spotted at a truck stop in Caruthersville, Missouri, and brought back to Saline (after being charged in Caruthersville with the auto theft).
Courtney Godwin
Pilgrim was originally charged with Armed Robbery, Kidnapping by Force of Threat/with a Weapon, and Possession of a Stolen Vehicle.
Godwin was charged with the Possession of a Stolen Vehicle count, too...which made it clear that there was no "kidnapping": likely, the two little dimwits staged the entire thing. However, stupidity isn't a crime on the books in Illinois (yet) so they were duly charged with what they could be charged.
Godwin pled to her stolen vehicle count in September and got 3 years probation, since she's a new felon as of 2014. We don't know what Pilgrim's history is, but apparently it's pretty bad if he got 16 years on the two counts....which is his sentence to DOC as of yesterday.