Jurors convicted Rosa Lagrone after prosecutors described a shooting followed by a Facebook video call with the woman Darnell Manns had been dating.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — An Illinois woman has been sentenced to 38 years in prison for fatally shooting her fiancé during an argument about another woman, closing the trial-court phase of a murder case that began as a domestic shooting nearly six years ago.

Rosa Lagrone, 40, was sentenced Aug. 5 by Judge Daniel Guerin after a DuPage County jury found her guilty of first-degree murder in February. Prosecutors said Lagrone shot 27-year-old Darnell Manns once on Nov. 6, 2020, at her home in unincorporated Naperville. The bullet passed through his arm and lodged in his spine. Manns was taken to a hospital and died from his injuries three days later. The sentence requires Lagrone to serve the full 38 years before she can become eligible for parole, according to the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The shooting followed an argument over Manns allegedly dating another woman, prosecutors said. Authorities placed Lagrone and Manns at her home in the 0-100 block of 25W Keswick Lane at about 2:16 p.m. Manns was packing his belongings to leave, according to local court reporting. What began as a dispute inside the home then became a criminal case that would remain pending for more than five years before a jury heard the evidence. Prosecutors said Lagrone fired a pistol once, striking Manns in the arm and torso. Investigators later determined that the bullet traveled through his arm before becoming lodged in his spine.

One of the most significant pieces of the prosecution’s account concerned what happened after the gunfire. The state’s attorney’s office said Lagrone used Manns’ Facebook account to begin a live video chat with the woman he had allegedly been dating. Manns could be seen on the floor in the background while seriously wounded, prosecutors said. Later reporting on the case said the recording also appeared to show someone kicking Manns twice. Authorities did not rely on that description alone to establish the homicide charge, but the video became an unusual part of the public account of the case and helped document the period immediately after the shooting.

Emergency responders eventually took Manns to a local hospital. At first, the criminal case against Lagrone reflected the fact that he was still alive. She was arrested and appeared in bond court Nov. 8, 2020, on charges that included attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and domestic battery. A judge set bond at $1.5 million, with 10% required to secure release. Manns died Nov. 9. Ten days later, on Nov. 19, prosecutors obtained an indictment that included five additional first-degree murder charges. The change showed how Manns’ death altered the legal stakes of a case that had initially been filed as a nonfatal shooting prosecution.

Prosecutors later sought either to have Lagrone held without bail or to raise her bond to $3 million. A judge denied that request, and she remained in the DuPage County Jail under the original $1.5 million bond, according to the state’s attorney’s office. She stayed in custody from her 2020 arrest through the eventual trial. The lengthy gap between the shooting and the verdict meant that the case passed through years of pretrial proceedings before jurors were asked to decide whether the state had proved first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.

The trial began in early February 2026 and lasted four days. After the prosecution and defense finished presenting evidence and arguments, jurors deliberated for about two and a half hours. They returned a guilty verdict Feb. 6 on one count of first-degree murder. The state’s attorney’s office announced the verdict that evening. State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said at the time that the verdict held Lagrone accountable for Manns’ death. The conviction resolved the central question that had remained open since the shooting: whether a jury would accept the state’s evidence that Lagrone criminally caused Manns’ death.

The sentencing hearing months later shifted the focus from guilt to punishment. Guerin, who had presided over the trial, imposed the 38-year Illinois Department of Corrections sentence on Aug. 5. State officials said Lagrone must serve 100% of the term before becoming eligible for parole. Because she had already spent years in custody following her arrest, the precise effect of any legally available custody credit was not detailed in the state’s public sentencing announcement. The release instead emphasized the length of the sentence imposed and the requirement that the prison term be served under the rules applicable to the conviction.

Berlin described the killing as a case of domestic violence with lasting consequences. He said the sentence could not restore what Manns’ family and loved ones lost. The prosecutor also thanked the assistant state’s attorneys who handled the case. His statement reflected the prosecution’s view after conviction and sentencing; the public release did not provide a comparable statement from Lagrone or her defense attorney about the sentence. It also did not provide a detailed account of arguments made by the defense at sentencing or identify any post-sentencing filing challenging the judgment.

The case developed in stages that can be traced through public records and contemporaneous reporting. Initial reports in November 2020 described Manns as hospitalized after a domestic shooting and identified Lagrone as facing attempted murder and related charges. After Manns died, authorities said they expected the case to become a homicide prosecution. The later indictment formally added murder charges. More than five years afterward, a jury considered the evidence and convicted Lagrone. The August sentence then converted that verdict into a decades-long prison term.

The public record also shows why later accounts of the case differ slightly in how they describe the relationship between Lagrone and Manns. Some official and local reports have called Manns her boyfriend, while the state’s sentencing announcement described him as her fiancé. The central facts of the prosecution, however, remained consistent across the state’s 2026 statements and contemporary coverage: the two were together at Lagrone’s home, they argued about another woman, Lagrone shot Manns once, and Manns died three days later. The state further said Lagrone contacted the other woman through Manns’ Facebook account while he was still wounded in the room.

The homicide occurred on Nov. 6, 2020, but the sentence was not imposed until Aug. 5, 2026. That span makes the sentencing, rather than the shooting itself, the current development. Lagrone is no longer an accused defendant awaiting a determination of guilt: a jury convicted her after trial, and a judge has now imposed the punishment. The state’s attorney’s office said the 38-year sentence will be served in the Illinois Department of Corrections. No later court ruling altering the conviction or sentence was identified in the sources reviewed for this report.

Author note: Last updated September 20, 2026.