Huddled around a pair of tables on the second-floor cafeteria of Chicago’s Dirksen U. S. Courthouse, mother Mellanie Washington and daughter Taniyah Tanner spoke about future plans. They prattled about diplomas to be earned, careers to build, healing to last. They laughed. They reminisced. It was a moment more than nine years in the making. In a hearing Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge handed down the maximum sentence to a man who earlier this summer admitted to the 2016 shooting of Washington’s son and Taniyah’s twin brother, Tavon Tanner. U. S. District Judge Jorge Alonso sentenced Terrance White, 32, to 10 years in federal prison after White pleaded guilty in June to attempted murder in aid of racketeering activity for the nearly decade-old shooting of then-10-year-old Tavon. White was also ordered to pay nearly $279,000 in restitution. “(The) sentence here is not going to make up for what he did,” Alonso said Wednesday as he handed down his order, with Washington and Taniyah watching from the courtroom. “(It) will never make up for what he did.” Tavon did not attend the hearing. “He (Tavon) did not want to look at him,” Washington told the Tribune. White, who is currently serving a separate long-term sentence for a state murder case, sat in the courtroom in white and red striped prison garb. “It’s been a struggle to get to this point,” Washington said following the hearing, Taniyah sitting to her right. “It’s like (a decade). That’s a long time. It seemed like it lasted forever.” On a warm night on Aug. 8, 2016, in the city’s Lawndale neighborhood, Tavon had been sitting on the front porch of his family’s then West Side home, gazing at the moon, when out from the darkness, shots came out of nowhere. A bullet struck Tavon near the base of his spine. As he lay bleeding on the floor, Taniyah stood next to him and cried, “Twin, don’t leave me! Twin, don’t leave me!” His mother prayed out loud into the phone as she dialed 911. Tavon spent weeks in the hospital, where for a while it was uncertain whether he would live. Then, they didn’t know if they would find justice. In the wake of the shooting, police had initially arrested and sought charges against White, but he was ultimately let go, according to Chicago police Detective Patrick Munyon, who, along with Detective Kevin Lynn, started working on the case the night Tavon was shot. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which was separately investigating the violent street gang that White was a part of at the time, caught wind of White’s arrest. After meeting with Lynn and Munyon, ATF took over the investigation. White was indicted in July 2021. In White’s plea agreement with prosecutors, he admitted to a murder attempt that led to the moment a bullet pierced Tavon in the back. The agreement recounted that in August 2016, White then a member of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang watched as a fellow gang member was killed. In turn, the agreement states, White sought to take revenge against the person responsible, who, according to federal and county court proceedings, pleaded guilty to the murder in 2022 and is now serving out a 45-year sentence in state prison. In his pursuit of retribution, White went to his target’s residence on the city’s West Side and shot into the first floor, per his plea agreement. However, as White opened fire into the home, Tavon was on the front steps. White’s target was not injured. White’s plea agreement and a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors ahead of Wednesday’s hearing stated that Tavon was shot by a bullet that White fired. In a separate sentencing memo, White’s attorney maintained that at least two other gunmen went with White to seek revenge that night and that it is unclear which of their bullets struck Tavon. As he reviewed the facts of the case on Wednesday, Alonso said it didn’t matter whose bullet it was that hit Tavon. “(White is) responsible for all of that when he made that plan and carried it out,” he said. The Tribune first met Tavon’s family two months after the shooting. Asked then what he remembered from the night he was shot, Tavon covered his face with his shirt. “Holding it in’s not good,” his mother had told him gently. “I’m mad about it,” Tavon replied at the time, lowering his shirt. “It just makes me sad.” In May 2024, Tavon graduated from St. Patrick High School. Under a blue suit tailored just for him and a green graduation gown, stretched the scar Tavon carries with him that runs the full length of his abdomen. In their memo, prosecutors stated the seriousness of White’s offense “is difficult to overstate.” They pointed to not only the events that took place the night of the shooting, but laid out a long criminal history, including previous firearm convictions prior to the shooting. Defense attorney Jerry Bischoff at Wednesday’s hearing said White was “remorseful and regretful” for what happened. White is concurrently serving a 57-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections after a jury last year found him guilty of the 2017 murder of a 30-year-old North Lawndale man, according to Cook County Circuit Court records. He was sentenced for the murder conviction in early June, but within days, filed to appeal the judgment, court proceedings show. White’s sentencing comes as Four Corner Hustler boss Labar Spann faces trial after being convicted in November 2021 on sweeping gang racketeering charges. Ahead of the order, Assistant U. S. Attorney Tiffany Ardam read aloud two victim impact letters, one from Washington and the other from Taniyah. They listened from their seats. Lynn and Munyon, who stayed in touch long after that August night and have since become like family, sat on either side of them. “We are 20 now,” Taniya’s letter read. “I’m thanking God we made it together. I wonder, have you ever thought how it would feel if it was you or one of yours?” Tavon started a plumbing apprenticeship this week. Next, he wants to apply to be in the plumbing union. After the hearing, Lynn and Munyon joined Taniyah and Washington downstairs at the cafeteria tables as they caught up. “I was restless last night,” Washington said. “Well, you know what, though?” Munyon replied. “Now it’s (the) past. Now it’s time to focus on all of these things. Diploma, careers . on living.”.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/19/tavon-tanner-shooting-sentence-federal-chicago-court/
