URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — A man from Urbana will spend the next 75 years in prison after he was convicted of shooting and killing a Champaign man in front of his children last year.

Zaire Herman, 22, was in court on Friday to learn his fate after he was found guilty on five counts in June — four of murder and one of possessing a gun as a felon. He was accused and convicted of killing 31-year-old Anthony Miller on March 17 of this year.

Herman was recorded on surveillance footage firing at least 19 shots at Miller after he originally fired at someone else, State’s Attorney Julia Rietz previously told WCIA. Shot in the head, Miller was taken to the hospital and was initially stabilized, but died two hours after being shot.

Miller was sitting in his van, parked in the Oakwood Trace Apartment complex, when Herman opened fire. His three children, all under the age of 4, were sitting in the van with him; they were not hurt.

Police found Herman hiding near the scene of the shooting and he was arrested. Evidence identifying him as the shooter included his distinctive flower-pattern pants, consistent with what the shooter was seen wearing on camera. In addition, a gun was found between the scene of the murder and the place where police found Herman; ballistic testing confirmed it was the murder weapon, and forensic swabbing found Herman’s DNA on it.

It took a jury less than an hour to return a guilty verdict against Herman. He faced anywhere from 45 years to life in prison.

At Herman’s arraignment, Rietz noted that he had a criminal record dating back to 2016, when he was a minor, and Judge Brett Olmstead described Herman as having “already amassed a serious and dangerous criminal record.” On Friday, Assistant State’s Attorney Brooke Hinman used that history to ask Judge Randy Rosenbaum to sentence Herman to life behind bars.

Hinman presented evidence of “his inappropriate and sexual behaviors in the jail,” two other shootings he was allegedly involved in, and the fact that Herman had been tried in another murder case just one year prior. He was accused of fatally shooting 21-year-old Jalen Williams in January of 2023 but was acquitted by a jury.

Despite that acquittal, Hinman pointed to evidence the state presented in that trial as part of her argument.

She also used a statement from Herman’s juvenile probation officer, who described him as “completely out of control.”

“He believes that rules and laws simply do not apply to him and is fully committed to doing whatever he wants at the expense of others,” the officer said. “He simply does not care.”

When it came time for Judge Rosenbaum to issue a sentence, he did not issue a life sentence outright, but the length will ensure that Herman spends most, if not all, of his remaining life behind bars.

“Mr. Herman is one of the most dangerous persons I’ve ever seen,” the judge said.

He sentenced Herman to 75 years for the murder and a consecutive five years for possessing a gun as a felon. The offense of first-degree murder is not eligible for good time credit, meaning Herman has to serve 100% of the sentence.

This will keep him behind bars into his late 90s, and an additional five years for illegal possession of a weapon would keep him in prison past 100.