A Chicago public league basketball star featured on a reality show with LeBron James has been sentenced in the murder of a doorman at Chicago nightclub Sound-Bar.
Armond Williams was sentenced to 20 years in prison this week after pleading guilty to first-degree murder. CWB Chicago was the first to report Williams’ sentencing. CWB Chicago adds that two others accused of participating in the shooting are still contesting the charges.
Williams was originally charged with 19 felonies; 18 were dismissed after Williams agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of first-degree murder.
The March 8 2019 shooting outside Sound-Bar actually began a week prior, according to prosecutors, when defendant Michael Matthews allegedly objected to how he’d been searched by club security. According to the prosecution narrative, Matthews returned to the club on March 8 with Williams and co-defendant Jon Poole and complained about the search during his previous visit. After the argument turned physical and several security guards were punched, Sound-Bar doorman Thurmond Bailey pulled out a gun. Williams pulled out his own gun and shot Bailey. While fleeing the scene, Poole was allegedly handed the gun and fired at the club. Bailey later died of gunshot wounds from the shooting; another man that CWB identifies as Sound-Bar owner Mark Jurcyzk was also injured.
Matthews surrendered to police in September 2019. Poole was arrested in Lawrenceville, Georgia in June 2019. Matthews and Poole dispute the prosecution’s allegations and have yet to go to trial.
Armond Williams starred as a basketball player in the Chicago Public League and was the state slam dunk champion in 2000. Williams started for three years for the UIC Flames and was the 2004 Horizon League Tournament MVP. He appeared as part of the Chicago team in the 2005 season of Battlegrounds: King of the Court, an MTV reality show hosted by LeBron James. His teammates included future NBA ballers Patrick Beverley and Jeremy Pargo, on a team coached by future NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala.
The shooting lead to the Chicago Police superintendent closing Sound-Bar until the River North nightclub submitted a new “safety plan” for approval. The club re-opened about a month later.
A cousin of Williams is quoted in a 2019 story in the Chicago Sun-Times as stating that Williams was a regular at Sound-Bar but wasn’t planning on visiting that night.
Thurmond Bailey was 28 years old. His mother described him as “the epitome of a black young man blazing his course in the world.”
“He was just an amazing young man, a young man that was loved and cherished.”
