An Illinois man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the brutal 2021 murder of his girlfriend. Joshua A. McGee, 39, was sentenced on October 3, 2025, to 65 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the killing of Ashley Tankersley.
Chief Judge Katherine Gorman handed down the sentence after a Peoria County jury found McGee guilty in August of First-Degree Murder and Unlawful Possession of a Weapon by a Felon.
McGee was sentenced to 55 years for the murder and a consecutive 10 years for the weapons charge, totaling 65 years. Due to state law, McGee must serve the entire 55-year sentence for the murder, ensuring he will be an elderly man, if he survives, before ever seeing parole.
The tragic incident unfolded on August 22, 2021, when Peoria County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call near Brimfield. They discovered Tankersley shot and abandoned in a roadside ditch. Despite the deputies’ efforts, she later died at a hospital.
The trail of evidence quickly led investigators to McGee. Deputies traced the 911 call back to his phone and tracked him to a rest stop in Sherman, Illinois. A tense, hours-long standoff with law enforcement followed before McGee was finally taken into custody.
The evidence presented at trial was overwhelming. A search of McGee’s vehicle uncovered the murder weapon, two spent shell casings, and items belonging to the victim.
Furthermore, forensic testing confirmed Tankersley’s blood was on McGee’s shoes, and cellular data placed his phone squarely at the scene of the crime.
The firearms expert definitively linked the shell casings found to the gun recovered from McGee’s vehicle.
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