75 cents
Breaking news at Daily-Chronicle.com
Serving DeKalb County since 1879
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
TRENDING FOOD
GIRLS SOCCER
Eggs come into haute cuisine scene Food, C1
Spartans build off win for 7-0 victory Sports, B1
Guilty plea in NIU student’s murder Chaz Thrailkill gets 30 years for 2011 killing of senior at off-campus party By ANDREA AZZO aazzo@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Although they say one of the links in their family chain is missing, the parents of Steven Agee II said they need to get back to normalcy. Agee, 22, of Park Forest, was shot and killed about 2 a.m. Nov. 23, 2011, during an off-campus party in an apartment at 809 Edgebrook Drive in DeKalb. The man who pulled the trigger, Chaz Thrailkill, 21, of Markham,
Chaz Thrailkill
Steven Agee II
accepted a 30-year murder plea agreement Tuesday. The case was set for trial April 14. “I am so humbled and blessed,” Steven Agee Sr. said of the plea agreement. “Now we can have peace and
move on. The healing process starts.” Thrailkill was sentenced to 25 years in prison for first-degree murder and five years for attempted aggravated discharge of a firearm. Thrailkill will serve the mandatory 25 years but will be eligible for day-for-day good-time credit for the five-year sentence. He will serve three years of parole after he is released. If convicted of first-degree murder at trial, Thrailkill would have faced at least 45 years in prison because he
personally pulled the trigger, DeKalb County Assistant State’s Attorney Phil Montgomery said. Thrailkill’s youth and the fact he had no previous criminal history makes the sentence appropriate, Montgomery said. “He was 19 at the time, had no background whatsoever and was with the Marine Corps at the time this occurred,” Montgomery said, adding Thrailkill likely will be 46 years old when he is released. Thrailkill was set to stand
trial on the charges in a couple of weeks. Both the Agee family and Thrailkill’s mother were in court for a hearing on pretrial matters; court adjourned while Thrailkill talked with his mother before DeKalb County Presiding Judge Robbin Stuckert accepted the agreement. Agee, an NIU sociology major who was to graduate that May, was shot twice in the back and shot once in the arm, which then hit his chest, Montgomery said. He was later pronounced dead at Kish-
waukee Community Hospital. Agee was involved with numerous organizations on campus. His mother Kimberly Agee will attend a students’ choice award presentation at 7 p.m. April 14 at NIU’s Holmes Student Center, 340 Carroll Ave., DeKalb. A student will receive a scholarship in Agee’s name for his or her high achievements, Kimberly Agee said. “I don’t know how to move forward,” she said. “We know
See NIU MURDER, page A6
Director of Safe Passage named By DEBBIE BEHRENDS dbehrends@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Mary Ellen Schaid has been named executive director of Safe Passage, DeKalb County’s domestic violence and sexual assault prevention agency. A Chicago-area native, Schaid will take over May 1. Deanna Hacker, the organization’s chief financial officer, has been serving as interim director since Linda Moser resigned for health reasons in March 2013. Lois Self, a Safe Passage board member and head of the search committee, said they made some other changes before finding a new director. “We went into the search gradually and deliberately,” Self said. “We wanted to build up our board and complete a strategic plan. We took our time with the search.” Schaid, 59, spent almost 10 years as president and CEO of the Gillis Center, a child and family service agency in Kansas City, Mo., and seven years as executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Center in DuPage County. She has a bachelor’s degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago and a master’s degree from Loyola University in Chicago. Safe Passage, which is funded by government entities as well as private foundations, each year helps hundreds of local people who are victims of domestic violence,
See DIRECTOR , page A6
About Mary Ellen Schaid • Past experience: President and CEO of the Gillis Center in Kansas City, Mo.; executive director of the Mary Ellen Children’s AdvoSchaid cacy Center in DuPage County • Bachelor’s degree in social work from Roosevelt University • Master’s degree in social work from Loyola University
GROWING THE
GARDEN Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Nathan Dettman (left) and Heath Johnson work on planting seeds for this season’s gardens Wednesday inside the DeKalb High School greenhouse. In 2013, DeKalb County Community Gardens donated more than 16,000 pounds of food to local pantries.
DeKalb County Community Gardens adding orchard, ‘food forest’ to repertoire By KATIE DAHLSTROM
Voice your opinion
kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Having more than 200 gardens that provide vegetables to people across DeKalb County wasn’t enough for Dan Kenney. Neither was donating more than 16,000 pounds of vegetables to residents in need. This year, Kenney and his prolific nonprofit organization, DeKalb County Community Gardens, will add a community orchard and “food forest” to provide fruit and nuts to DeKalb County while launching a project that encourages residents to start their own gardens. By the end of the organization’s third growing season, Kenney hopes to donate more than 50,000 pounds of vegetables and provide county residents with greater access to locally grown food. “It’s really about teaching people to fish, providing access to land, tools and food and educating them on
Have you eaten food from a local community garden? Vote online now at Daily-Chronicle. com
One of DeKalb County Community Gardens lead growers, Heath Johnson, drops a kale seed into a flat Wednesday inside the DeKalb High School greenhouse. These flats will house the seeds until the plants are hearty enough and the weather nice enough to transplant them at one of the community garden sites. how to grow, prepare and preserve their food,” Kenney said, referring to the proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Community Gardens is an organization aimed at ending hunger by provid-
ing a reliable source of food and teaching people how to grow their own food. Kenney, a retired teacher from Clinton Rosette Middle School, started the organization in 2011. Today it is supported by more than 300 volunteers and dozens of community partnerships.
The organization has expanded from 16 gardens in its first year to more than 40, which each contain 5-by-10-foot raised wooden garden beds. More than 200 raised beds dot the area, in locations such as DeKalb and Sycamore public schools, Golden Years
Plaza and the Voluntary Action Center. The produce is donated to food pantries, senior centers and community meal sites. Community Gardens is expanding vertically this year by starting an orchard at the Annie Glidden Outreach Garden near the DeKalb County government complex on Annie Glidden Road in DeKalb and a food forest at Old State Route 64 and Five Points Road, west of Sycamore. The latter is a space where the organization will plant root vegetables, bushes and trees to grow fruits and nuts. The organization is partnering with the DeKalb County Forest Preserve District for the land and DeKalb High School and Northern
See GARDENS, page A6
Inside today’s Daily Chronicle Lottery Local news Obituaries
A2 A3-4 A4
National and world news Opinions Sports
Weather A2, 5-6 A7 B1-4
Advice Comics Classified
C4 C5 C7-8
High:
41
Low:
37