COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Three summers ago, Sherry Hartison flew into a rage, doused her boyfriend with gasoline and set him on fire, prosecutors said.
The Chicago woman, 45, was sentenced Tuesday by Cook County Judge Steven Goebel to 45 years in prison for murder in the July 2010 attack, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
She and her boyfriend, 61-year-old Allan Penny, were fighting over money in their home in the 3100 block of West Washington Boulevard.
Hartison wanted a piece of Penny's monthly disability check, prosecutors said. When he refused, a fight broke out, and Hartison became enraged. She threw accelerant on her boyfriend and bolted the door.
The gasoline vapors caught fire, prosecutors said. Hartison ran from the burning apartment with Penny screaming on the floor.
Penny died in a hospital three weeks later, and Hartison was charged with murder.
She was convicted by a jury in June.
