Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – New motions in the Sonya Massey murder case will be heard Sept 12. But lawyers for defendant Sean Grayson – the former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who claims self-defense – dropped a cease-and-desist request that members of the Massey Commission stop holding events in Peoria, where the trial will be held.

Massey’s cousin, Sontae Massey, says that makes sense.

A recent event in Peoria “was not the Massey Commission or anything associated with the Massey Commission,” Sontae Massey told reporters after a status hearing Friday. “That was a few citizens in Peoria that felt as strongly about this case as we do. So they set something up, I went over there, and I spoke as a family member. So I think (the defense lawyers) had very little to go on, and they rightfully dropped it.”

On July 6, 2024, Grayson and another deputy came to Massey’s Springfield-area home after she called 9-1-1 to report a possible prowler. Shortly thereafter, the two deputies were inside Massey’s home, and Massey was holding a pan of hot water which Grayson said he feared she would throw at him. He then fatally shot her.

The defense wants to know more about Massey’s state of mind and is looking for evidence she had a history of violence. That insults her survivors, but, as one supporter says of the defense lawyers, “they’re being paid, so they are doing their job.”