DIXON – The second of two brothers accused of participating in a murder more than 35 years ago was sentenced Thursday afternoon to 2 and a half years’ probation for involuntary manslaughter.

Gordon “Kent” Bobell, 69, of Chillicothe, pleaded guilty Oct. 18 in Lee County Court.

His brother, Terry Bobell, 72, also of Chillicothe, pleaded guilty Aug. 2, 2018, to obstruction of justice and was put on probation for a year and a half.

The Bobells each were charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the Aug. 28, 1983, death of Gary Dawson, 30, of Peoria, who was bound with duct tape, stabbed and beaten to death, his naked body dumped in a Franklin Grove hog pen.

The lesser charges came about as a result of plea deals.

A third defendant, Steven Watts, 61, of Berryville, Arkansas, still is charged with one count of first-degree murder. The prosecution has acknowledged that Watts, who has been free on bond for more than 5 years, was offered “leniency for his truthful cooperation and testimony,” but new evidence has come to light indicating that he actually killed Dawson.

He has a pretrial conference Jan. 16.

“I’m sorry the Dawson family had to go through this,” Bobell said at sentencing. “I didn’t know anybody was going to be killed.”

Dawson’s brother, Rodney, also addressed the court.

“No matter what you do today, it’s not going to be enough,” he told Judge Jacquelyn Ackert. “My brother died because of him [Bobell] and his actions. He needs to be sentenced to the maximum penalty you can sentence him to, and that’s not going to be near enough.”

Lee County Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Brim did ask Ackert for prison time for Bobell, but in levying probation, she cited, among other things, information Bobell provided that fills in the blanks in other aspects of the cold case, including his upcoming participation in Watts’ prosecution, his relatively crime-free history in the ensuing 37 years, and the acceptance by investigators that when Bobell last saw Dawson, he still was alive.

In fact, at his plea hearing in October, then-State’s Attorney Matt Klahn acknowledged the potentially light sentence, noted the difficulty of obtaining any kind of conviction in a 35-year-old cold case, and said Kent Bobell “did cooperate in getting us as close to the truth as possible” in the events of that day.

Now that the brothers’ cases have been adjudicated, the focus will shift to Watts, who has been living in Arkansas and not generally required to make in-person court appearances.

While initial the investigation indicated that Kent Bobell may have killed Dawson, it now is believed that Dawson was alive the last time Bobell saw him, and that Watts dealt the fatal blow when he struck Dawson in the head with the butt of a gun.

The prosecution has said witnesses will testify:

At the time of the killing, Gordon Bobell, Watts and Dawson were members of the Peoria-based Brothers Motorcycle Club.

Watts, a Peoria marijuana dealer, had hired the Bobells work security for him, and went to them to handle a situation with Dawson – Watts’ brother, Bill, owed Dawson more than $90,000 for drugs, and Dawson thought Watts (who was having an affair with Dawson’s wife) should pay it.

That night, the three men kidnapped Dawson from his mother’s garage. As Watts drove to Kent’s home in Chillicothe, the brothers sat in the back of the car, beating Dawson.

Watts told at least one person that he participated, pummeling Dawson with the butt of a .357 Magnum.

When they got to Kent’s home, the brothers duct-taped Dawson’s hands, legs and mouth, and stuffed him in the trunk. Leaving the Bobells in Chillicothe, Watts drove to a mobile home in Rock Falls where Randy Wilson lived, opened the trunk and found Dawson dead.

Wilson suggested taking the body to the hog farm, which was owned by a man he knew. Once there, Watts undressed Dawson and removed the tape before the two carried his body over the fence and into a swine shelter.

A roll of duct tape with a bloody thumbprint later identified as Kent Bobell’s, and Dawson’s DNA, were found at the scene.

According to the autopsy, Dawson died of blunt-force trauma to the head and suffocation.

In September 1983, Kent Bobell first was charged with Dawson’s murder. Charges were dropped when he passed an FBI lie detector test in which he denied the killing.

Watts, too, was arrested about a month after Dawson’s death. He was charged with obstruction of justice, and in January 1987 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 2 and a half years’ probation.

He was arrested in Dawson’s death on Feb. 18, 2013 and held on $5 million bond, indicted the following month, then freed on $100,000 bond on Sept. 27, 2014.

The Bobells were arrested on Dec. 30, 2015.