A Danville, Illinois, woman, Shaylynn Kight, 25, was sentenced on October 26, 2026, to six months of imprisonment for criminal contempt based on her failure to comply with a federal trial subpoena and testify at a trial in November of 2025.
At the sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Colin S. Bruce, the evidence showed that Kight intentionally failed to appear and testify at the November 2025 jury trial of Marcus “Slim” McKinney at the federal courthouse in Urbana, Illinois. Prior to receiving a federal trial subpoena for McKinney’s trial, Kight had made statements to law enforcement officials and to a federal grand jury regarding her knowledge of McKinney’s distribution of crystal methamphetamine (“ice”), cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl in Danville in 2023, which included exchanging the drugs with women for sex, and McKinney’s efforts to tamper with witnesses and obstruct the investigation against him. After being served with a subpoena for McKinney’s federal trial, however, Kight failed to appear to testify as required and avoided all attempts by law enforcement to contact her. The Court issued a warrant for criminal contempt, and Kight was arrested on December 4, 2025. She pleaded guilty to criminal contempt on June 30, 2026, for failing to comply with the subpoena.
Despite Kight’s failure to testify at McKinney’s trial, the jury convicted McKinney on all counts with which he was charged. In August of this year, Judge Bruce sentenced McKinney to three life sentences based on his drug conspiracy conviction, his prior felony drug offenses, and jury findings that McKinney distributed drugs that resulted in serious bodily injury and death.
“A federal trial subpoena compels an individual to appear and testify. It is not an invitation. Our entire system of criminal justice relies on witnesses coming to court and testifying truthfully,” said Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene L. Miller. “Those who would attempt to subvert the jury’s truth-seeking function by failing to appear and testify as required should know that there are criminal consequences for such conduct and that the United States will pursue them.”
The investigation was conducted by the Danville Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene L. Miller represented the United States at sentencing.
