THE FOLLOWING STORY IS BY BILL PICKETT
An Indianapolis woman has been sentenced to four years in prison in connection with the purchase of the firearm that was used to kill a Champaign Police officer in 2021.
Ashantae Corruthers is being imprisoned for engaging in a conspiracy to illegally purchase and transfer a firearm and engaging in misleading conduct. Corruthers had previously pleaded guilty admitting she conspired with co-defendant Regina Lewis and Darion M. Lafayette, now deceased, to purchase and transfer a firearm to Lafayette.
The U. S. Attorney’s Office says Corruthers falsely reported to Indianapolis Police in April of 2021 that the Glock pistol had been stolen. Approximately twenty-three days after the pistol was reported stolen, prosecutors say it was used by Lafayette to shoot Champaign Police Officers Christopher Oberheim and Jeffrey Creel. Oberheim died from his wounds.
Co-defendant Lewis is currently serving an eight-and-a-half-year sentence in federal prison after being sentenced last December.
The case was investigated by agents from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene L. Miller represented the government in the prosecution.
[Information for this story supplied by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois.]
