Springfield, Illinois — Defense attorneys for Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County deputy sheriff charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Sonya Massey, have filed a series of motions this week seeking to restrict external influences on the upcoming trial and to introduce new evidence they argue is essential to a fair defense.

Grayson’s legal team, led by attorneys Daniel L. Fultz of Brown, Hay & Stephens, LLP, and Mark Kevin Wykoff, Sr. of Wykoff Law Office, filed a Motion for an Order to Cease and Desist, targeting the taxpayer-funded Massey Commission, which they say has begun outreach in Peoria County. The court previously granted a change of venue from Sangamon to Peoria in April 2025 due to concerns that pretrial publicity—particularly that surrounding the Massey Commission—could taint the jury pool.

The defense now claims the same Commission is undermining the new venue by “educating” Peoria residents about the incident and its broader implications. “Whether intended or not, the effect… is the potential tainting of the Peoria County jury pool, which was the very basis for moving the trial to begin with,” the motion states. The defense is asking the court to order the Commission to halt its activities in Peoria County. If the outreach continues, they warn they may seek another change of venue.

In two additional motions, Grayson’s attorneys are also asking the court to allow them to introduce evidence related to Massey’s mental state and prior violent behavior, which they say is relevant to their argument that Grayson acted in self-defense.

One motion seeks permission to present evidence that Massey had a history of violent behavior, including an incident just hours before the shooting where she allegedly attacked a neighbor with a brick. According to reports included in the filing, Massey was the aggressor in that altercation, which stemmed from a dispute over a broken car window.

The defense argues that if prosecutors challenge the findings of a use-of-force expert—who concluded Massey was throwing boiling water at deputies when Grayson opened fire—then Massey’s history of violence must be admissible to establish who was the initial aggressor. The motion references an Illinois State Police memorandum stating that Massey “threw the steaming hot water from the pot” at Grayson before he fired his weapon.

Another motion asks the court to admit statements and documented behavior to establish Massey’s mental state in the hours leading up to the fatal encounter. According to the motion, text messages Massey sent to a car salesman in the days before the shooting included alarming statements like “they will kill me” and “I’m about to die at St. John’s.” The same day before the shooting, Massey’s mother allegedly called 9-1-1 to report that her daughter was “having a mental breakdown and was paranoid.” Springfield police body camera footage reportedly shows Massey interacting with mental health clinicians, and she later visited a hospital where she told staff she had been recently diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, though she left without being seen.

Grayson has remained in custody since his July 2024 arrest. His trial is scheduled to begin October 20, 2025, in Peoria County.