GENEVA – A 17-year-old Sudanese immigrant will serve the next 33 years in prison after pleading guilty in the 2005 murder of an Aurora woman.
Friday, Gareng Dang, formerly of Aurora, was sentenced to 35 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections after he agreed to a plea deal offered by prosecutors from the Kane County State's Attorney's Office for his role in the shooting death of 47-year-old Marilyn Bethell.
Bethell had disappeared from her home on the far north side of Aurora in DuPage County on Halloween in 2005. Prosecutors charged that Deng, who was 14 years old at the time, broke into Bethell's home and later played a role in her death.
Her body was found Dec. 26, 2005, in a wooded area off the Illinois Prairie Path bike trail near Butterfield and Kirk roads in Batavia Township. She had died after being shot in the head, prosecutors said.
Deng, a native of Sudan who had emigrated to the U.S. as a young boy, pleaded guilty to first degree murder in the slaying. His plea was accepted by Associate Judge Allen Anderson, who then sentenced Deng according to the terms of the deal.