Accomplice to Arlington Heights murder pleads guilty, gets 22 years

(ROLLING MEADOWS) An accomplice to a man who murdered his father in their Arlington Heights home in 2011 was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Friday.

Armon Braden, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder Friday at a hearing before Judge Martin Agran, who handed down the sentence, court records show. He was given credit for more than 3 1/2 years spent in jail since his arrest.

Braden was one of three men charged alongside former Arlington Heights resident Matthew Nellessen, who is serving a life sentence without parole for fatally beating and stabbing his father in their home in April 2011.

Nellessen, 23, bound his father, George Nellessen, to a chair and beat him with a baseball bat after forcing his father to sign over $100,000 from his life savings, prosecutors said. He then fatally stabbed the 55-year-old in the neck after he threatened to call police.

A jury convicted the younger Nellessen of first-degree murder in March 2014, authorities said.

Braden, his brother Azari Braden and a third co-defendant, Marlon L. Green, were accused of participating in the robbery and taking some of the proceeds, prosecutors claimed.

Marlon L. Green pleaded guilty to armed robbery in December and is serving a 22-year sentence, court records show. Prosecutors dropped all charges against Azari Braden in January.