ROCHELLE – A 29-year-old man authorities say stabbed a Rochelle woman to death in 2022 will be spending over three decades in prison. Gary C. Freeman of Palatine was sentenced to 35 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to the first-degree murder of 28-year-old Devin K. Gibbons. Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock announced on Friday that he pleaded guilty to the charge of First Degree Murder. Freeman’s prison sentence will be served at 100% and followed by three years of Mandatory Supervised Release. In September 2022, Freeman fatally stabbed Gibbons and then set her apartment on fire in the 500 block of Seventh Avenue in Rochelle. Freeman had initially pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including first-degree murder, residential arson, and concealment of a homicide. The Rochelle Police Department led the investigation into the crime.
State’s Attorney Mike Rock stated: “I would like to thank the Rochelle Police Department’s Det. Sgt. John Kaltenbach (ret.) and Det. Elvis Baneski and Assistant State’s Attorneys Allison Huntley and Heather Kruse for their hard work on this case.”
