Man gets life sentence for killing 5 in Far South Side home invasion

A man who killed five people during the robbery of a drug dealer’s Far South Side home in 2016 was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.

Cook County Judge William Gamboney handed down the sentence against Lionel Parks for the murders in the Fernwood neighborhood.

Parks, 35, was convicted by a jury in July of killing Elijah Jackson, 36; his pregnant sister, Shacora Jackson, 40; Shacora Jackson’s daughter, Nateyah Hines, 19; Scott Thompson, 46; and 19-year-old Shakeyah Jackson.

Cook County sheriff’s office

Parks went to Elijah Jackson’s Fernwood neighborhood home to socialize with him twice on Dec. 17, 2016, before returning a third time that day and forcing his way into the home with another gunman, prosecutors said at his initial court appearance the following year.

Parks and a second gunman ransacked the house looking for money and drugs before executing the five and fleeing, prosecutors said.

A then 22-year-old family member was shot but survived by playing dead, prosecutors said.

Parks had been on parole and was still wearing a state Department of Corrections ankle monitor at the time of the shootings, the Sun-Times previously reported. Department records showed Parks had left the address he had listed as his residence four times on the day of the murders, including during the hours when the shootings took place.

Surveillance cameras also showed him leaving his house shortly before the murders, and returning shortly afterward, walking with another person and carrying a large bag, prosecutors said. Another camera showed what appears to be Parks’ vehicle driving near the Jacksons’ house before and after the killings.

No one else was ever charged in connection with the killings.