The sentence followed Rosa Lagrone’s February conviction for the 2020 shooting death of her fiancé, Darnell Manns.
NAPERVILLE, Ill. — A 38-year prison sentence imposed on Rosa Lagrone has brought renewed focus to a 2020 domestic homicide in DuPage County that prosecutors said began with an argument over another relationship and ended with Darnell Manns dead.
Judge Daniel Guerin sentenced Lagrone, 40, on Aug. 5, six months after a jury convicted her of first-degree murder. The punishment was announced by DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, who described Manns’ killing in the context of domestic violence and emphasized the permanent consequences for those who knew him. Lagrone’s sentencing came after years in county custody and a four-day trial in which prosecutors presented evidence about the shooting and Lagrone’s actions immediately afterward. The state said she must serve 100% of the 38-year term before becoming eligible for parole.
For Manns’ family and other loved ones, the sentencing represented the final major trial-court decision publicly announced in a case dating to Nov. 6, 2020. Berlin said after the hearing that the length of a prison term could not restore Manns to those who loved him. His statement framed the punishment as accountability while also acknowledging that a criminal sentence cannot undo a death. The prosecution’s release did not include a statement from Manns’ relatives, nor did it identify any remarks from Lagrone or her defense team at the sentencing hearing.
The violence occurred inside Lagrone’s home in unincorporated Naperville. Prosecutors said she and Manns, then 27, were together at about 2:16 p.m. and were arguing about Manns allegedly dating another woman. According to local reporting, Manns was packing his belongings to leave. Lagrone fired a pistol once. Authorities said the bullet struck his arm and torso, traveling through his arm and lodging in his spine. The state’s account describes a single gunshot, but its consequences turned the confrontation into a homicide case within days.
After the shooting, prosecutors said, Lagrone accessed Manns’ Facebook page and made a live video call to the woman he had allegedly been seeing. Manns remained visible on the floor in the background while wounded. Other reporting on the prosecution’s evidence said the video appeared to show someone kicking him twice. Authorities eventually transported Manns to a local hospital. He remained alive long enough for the first charges against Lagrone to be filed, then died from his injuries on Nov. 9.
The timing of his death changed the prosecution. When Lagrone first appeared in bond court on Nov. 8, she was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and domestic battery. Judge Paul Marchese set bond at $1.5 million. After Manns died, prosecutors moved toward first-degree murder charges. On Nov. 19, the state obtained an indictment adding five murder counts. A later attempt by prosecutors to have Lagrone held without bail or increase her bond to $3 million was denied, but she remained in the DuPage County Jail under the original bond.
The years between indictment and trial are not fully explained in the public summaries reviewed for this story. What those records establish is that Lagrone never left custody and that the murder charge eventually reached a jury in February 2026. The trial lasted four days. Jurors then deliberated for about two and a half hours before finding her guilty on Feb. 6. The conviction resolved the question of criminal liability at the trial level and allowed the court to move to post-trial proceedings and sentencing.
The prosecution’s public descriptions have repeatedly highlighted the circumstances surrounding the shooting, particularly the dispute over Manns’ alleged relationship with another woman and the video call afterward. Those facts help explain the state’s account of the confrontation but do not require speculation about Lagrone’s mental state beyond what prosecutors proved at trial. The jury was responsible for determining whether the evidence met the legal standard for first-degree murder. Its verdict established guilt after the adversarial court process, replacing the unresolved allegations that had appeared in early reports from 2020.
Berlin’s comments after sentencing placed the killing within the broader category of domestic violence. That characterization came from the elected prosecutor whose office brought the case and secured the conviction. The public record also shows that a domestic-battery charge was among the original counts filed while Manns was hospitalized. Neither fact supplies details about the couple’s relationship outside the events surrounding the shooting, and available court summaries do not establish a broader history of abuse between them. The documented case centers on the fatal encounter at Lagrone’s home.
The sentencing announcement also made clear that the state considered the 38-year term a significant punishment. Berlin said Guerin’s sentence demonstrated that violent conduct of this kind would carry serious consequences in DuPage County. At the same time, he said the loss suffered by Manns’ loved ones would last longer than Lagrone’s sentence. The statement balanced the prosecutor’s institutional message about punishment with recognition that a prison term does not erase the effects of the homicide.
Manns was 27 when he died. The state’s public releases provide few biographical details about him beyond his age, his relationship with Lagrone and the circumstances of the shooting. That limited record is important because the facts available about the prosecution are much fuller than the public information about the victim’s life. Authorities have repeatedly stated that Manns was taken to a hospital after the shooting and died Nov. 9, 2020. They have not released, in the materials reviewed, a broader account of his background or comments from relatives that would support expanding that part of the story.
Lagrone was 34 at the time of the shooting and 40 when the case went to trial. Public records from the prosecution show that her incarceration began shortly after the incident and continued through conviction. After the February verdict, reports said she was expected back in court in April for a presentence report and post-trial motions. The August sentencing was therefore the culmination of several additional months of proceedings after the jury had already decided guilt. The state’s announcement did not describe the details of those post-trial arguments.
The case also illustrates the difference between the information available at the beginning of a criminal investigation and the findings that emerge years later. In November 2020, authorities could say that Manns had been shot and that Lagrone faced attempted-murder and battery charges. Once Manns died, prosecutors could allege homicide. Not until February 2026 could they point to a jury verdict establishing guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And not until August could they identify the punishment ordered by the court.
That progression now defines the case’s current status. Lagrone has been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 38 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Prosecutors said the term must be served in full before parole eligibility. The sources reviewed did not identify a later decision reversing the conviction, reducing the sentence or otherwise changing Guerin’s judgment. The trial court’s most recent publicly reported action therefore remains the 38-year sentence for Manns’ 2020 killing.
Author note: Last updated September 20, 2026.