Rosa Lagrone was convicted of killing Darnell Manns after prosecutors reconstructed both the gunfire and what happened immediately afterward.
NAPERVILLE, Ill. — A Facebook video call made moments after a fatal 2020 shooting became one of the most unusual pieces of the public account against Rosa Lagrone, who has now been sentenced to 38 years in prison for murdering Darnell Manns.
Prosecutors said the call captured a scene that followed the central act in the case: Lagrone shooting Manns once during an argument at her home in unincorporated Naperville. Authorities said Lagrone then used Manns’ Facebook page to contact the woman he had allegedly been dating while Manns remained seriously wounded in the background. Nearly six years later, a DuPage County jury convicted Lagrone of first-degree murder after a four-day trial, and Judge Daniel Guerin imposed the 38-year sentence Aug. 5. State officials said Lagrone must serve the entire prison term before becoming eligible for parole.
The digital evidence drew attention because it documented part of the aftermath rather than the shooting itself. According to the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office, Lagrone initiated a live video chat through Manns’ account after he had been shot. Manns could be seen on the floor behind her. Law&Crime and local reporting, citing the prosecution’s account, said the video also appeared to show someone kicking him twice. Public reports do not provide a complete recording, full transcript or detailed description of every exchange during the call, so the available account is limited to what prosecutors and news organizations have disclosed.
The physical evidence described by authorities was more straightforward. At about 2:16 p.m. Nov. 6, 2020, Lagrone and Manns were at her home in the 0-100 block of 25W Keswick Lane. Prosecutors said the two were arguing over Manns allegedly dating another woman. Local reporting said Manns was gathering belongings to leave. During the dispute, Lagrone fired a pistol once. The shot struck Manns in the arm and torso, and investigators later determined that the bullet passed through his arm and became lodged in his spine.
Manns was still alive when the first criminal charges were filed. He was taken to a hospital after the shooting, and Lagrone was arrested. At her Nov. 8 bond hearing, prosecutors charged her with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and domestic battery. A judge set bond at $1.5 million. Those charges reflected the circumstances as they existed at that time: Manns had suffered a grave injury, but the case had not yet become a homicide. The distinction lasted only a short time.
Manns died Nov. 9, three days after being shot. Contemporary reporting said DuPage County officials expected the attempted-murder case to be upgraded following his death. On Nov. 19, prosecutors obtained an indictment adding five first-degree murder charges. Lagrone remained in custody. Prosecutors later tried to have her held without bail or to raise the bond to $3 million, but that request was denied. She stayed in jail under the original bond through the years of litigation that followed.
By the time of trial in February 2026, the prosecution could present the incident as a full sequence rather than an isolated gunshot. There was the argument over another relationship, the shot and its path through Manns’ body, the Facebook call afterward, the emergency response, Manns’ hospitalization and his death. A jury heard the evidence over four days. After about two and a half hours of deliberations on Feb. 6, jurors returned a guilty verdict for first-degree murder.
The role of the video call is important to describe carefully. Public statements from prosecutors establish that the call existed and that Manns appeared in the background. They do not show that the video by itself proved every legal element of first-degree murder. The verdict came after an entire trial, not a single piece of evidence. Jurors could consider the circumstances surrounding the shooting together with physical evidence, testimony and other admissible material presented in court. Public summaries do not provide a complete evidentiary record or specify the weight jurors assigned to each item.
That distinction matters because the video was also the most sensational element of the case and therefore the detail most likely to overshadow the legal proceeding. The homicide conviction rested on the state’s burden to prove first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt. The public record confirms the verdict but does not disclose the jurors’ private reasoning. Their roughly two-and-a-half-hour deliberation ended with a finding of guilt after a trial overseen by Guerin.
Following the verdict, the court moved into the sentencing phase. Reports said Lagrone was scheduled to return April 1 for a presentence report and post-trial motions. Several months later, Guerin imposed the 38-year sentence. The state’s attorney’s office said the prison term must be served in full before parole eligibility. Lagrone had already been jailed since her 2020 arrest, but the state’s public announcement did not provide a detailed calculation of how previous custody would be treated or identify any later appellate ruling affecting the sentence.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin used the sentencing announcement to focus on the broader impact of the killing rather than on the digital evidence that had drawn public attention. He characterized the case as domestic violence and said the consequences for Manns’ loved ones would extend beyond the prison term imposed on Lagrone. Berlin also thanked the prosecutors who handled the case. The sentencing announcement did not include a response from Lagrone or her attorneys.
The case also shows how digital communications can preserve conduct immediately surrounding an alleged or proven crime without replacing more traditional evidence. Here, prosecutors said the Facebook interaction occurred after Manns had already been shot. The call provided information about Lagrone’s conduct during the aftermath, while investigators separately documented the gunshot wound and Manns’ medical decline. Manns’ death three days later changed the charges, and the jury’s 2026 verdict resolved the homicide allegation at trial.
Reports published shortly after the 2020 shooting could not state the outcome because none yet existed. At that stage Lagrone was a defendant accused of seriously wounding Manns, and authorities were waiting to determine the final charges after his death. In 2026, the procedural posture changed twice in a matter of months. First, jurors convicted Lagrone in February. Then Guerin sentenced her in August. Those later developments allow the case to be reported as a completed trial and sentencing rather than as an unresolved allegation.
The verified timeline ends with a state prison sentence of 38 years. The shooting occurred Nov. 6, 2020; Manns died Nov. 9; murder charges followed Nov. 19; Lagrone stayed in custody; a jury returned its verdict Feb. 6, 2026; and the sentence was imposed Aug. 5. The Facebook video call remains a notable part of that history, but the current legal fact is the judgment entered after trial: Lagrone stands convicted of first-degree murder and has been sentenced to decades in prison.
Author note: Last updated September 20, 2026.