MURPHYSBORO – A southeast Missouri man has been sentenced in Jackson County for first-degree murder in the shooting death of 28-year-old Keon L. Cooper, of Carbondale, in November 2019.

According to Jackson County State’s Attorney Joseph Cervantez, 28-year-old Olando Sheron, of Sikeston, was found guilty of first-degree murder last month following a jury trial in Jackson County. Sheron was sentenced Thursday to 80 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections to be followed by three years of Mandatory Supervised Release. He will have to serve the entire sentence.

Carbondale Police were sent to the 500 block of South Illinois Avenue for a complaint of shots fired on Nov. 3, 2019. Cooper was taken by ambulance to Memorial Hospital of Carbondale where he was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds.

In a matter of just hours, Carbondale Police investigators identified the shooters as 21-year-old Tyren Johnson and 24-year-old Olando Sheron, both of Sikeston. Police obtained arrest warrants for both Johnson and Sheron. 

On Nov. 7, 2019, Johnson was arrested on the Illinois warrant by the Sikeston Department of Public Safety. Johnson was found guilty of murder on Oct. 23, 2023, after a jury trial, and is awaiting sentencing. Sheron, however, fled and led law enforcement on a nearly two-year long manhunt.

The U.S. Marshals Service, Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force in Los Angeles, California, comprised of officers from the California Department of Corrections, along with the Gardena Police Department, Torrance Police Department, and Long Beach Police Department assisted in the investigation to locate Sheron.

On Oct. 26, 2021, after a dangerous car chase that led law enforcement across multiple jurisdictions, Sheron was arrested in Gardena, California. He was taken to the Los Angeles County Jail, and then extradited to Illinois.