Mounds man gets 70 years in video store murder case

Michael Fencel was sentenced Tuesday to 70 years in prison for the murder of a store customer and nonfatal shooting of a clerk at the Brown Big Video II store in McClure, Ill., in the summer of 2007.

Fencel, of Mounds, Ill., pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated battery last month in an Alexander County, Ill., court. He was sentenced Tuesday to 50 years for the murder — the maximum penalty allowed in Illinois — and 20 years for aggravated battery with a firearm, said Alexander County State's Attorney Jeffery Farris. The terms are to be served consecutively, Farris said.

Fencel is a former bouncer at a nightclub that, along with the Brown Bag Video II store, is owned by Richard Thompson.

Brown Bag customer Charles A. Caldwell was shot and killed during the July 31, 2007, robbery. The shop's clerk was injured.

Fencel was later arrested in his hometown, Ottawa, Ill., where Thompson owns another Brown Bag Video store.