Left: Emmet Metzger (Clinton County Jail). Right: Alexis Maki (Kassly Mortuary).
An Illinois man who confessed to gunning down his ex-girlfriend after a bad breakup has learned his fate, with a local judge giving him life in prison and a prosecutor ripping him at the sentencing, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
“All these people and more were harmed … because his feelings were hurt,” Clinton County State’s Attorney J.D. Brandmeyer, said at the sentencing of Emmet Metzger, 27, on Tuesday, according to an attorney’s office press release.
“He cannot compensate her family, her friends, and all of those who loved or were ever brought joy from Ms. Maki’s presence and existence,” he also said while directing the court’s attention to the gallery filled with people in support of victim Alexis Maki, 24, and her family.
“Unfortunately, [he] cannot compensate them for what he did,” the prosecutor added. “For all the pain, sadness, and heartache that he has caused many people because his feelings were hurt.”
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Metzger pleaded guilty in April to a charge of first-degree murder for the November 2023 slaying of Maki at the apartment they shared in New Baden, according to local CBS affiliate KMOV and the Belleville News-Democrat.
Recordings of the 911 call that Metzger placed after shooting Maki feature a phone confession from him that was made after he realized what he had done.
“I f—ed up,” Metzger told a dispatcher, according to KMOV and the News-Democrat. “I did something so bad. I shot my girlfriend. I need to be arrested, please.”
Metzger reportedly admitted to using a 9 mm Taurus G2C pistol to shoot Maki multiple times in their living room. The former couple had broken up a month before the shooting but still had a shared lease at an apartment on Hanover Street in New Baden, according to Maki’s mother, who spoke to KMOV in February 2024 about their relationship and prior incidents that allegedly happened between them.
“He was very jealous of her not spending all of her time with him,” said Maki’s mom, Lisa Brock. “He was just making her life miserable.”
On the day of the shooting, Brock said Metzger asked her to come over to the apartment they shared and to bring a dog that the two of them had adopted while dating so he could see it one last time. “I said, ‘I don’t feel good about this,’ and she said, ‘Neither do I,’” Brock told KMOV. “So, I said, ‘Don’t go.’”
Metzger was given life in prison Monday with no credit for the 583 days he served in jail, according to Brandmeyer’s office.
At his sentencing hearing, Brandmeyer argued that Metzger acted “under no provocation from any other person.” He said there were “no grounds which would excuse or justify Metzger’s actions,” per his office, and noted how it would be “impossible” for Metzger to ever compensate Maki’s family for the “damage or injury” that was caused.
“No matter what happens here today, [Metzger] still has his life,” Brandmeyer told the court. “It’s a tragedy that Ms. Maki doesn’t.”
Metzger’s lawyers tried fighting for a lesser sentence based on his alleged mental state and mental health concerns that were present at the time of the murder. Brandmeyer countered with the fact that Metzger allegedly failed to seek a diagnosis for any mental health disorder, and was never prescribed any psychotropic medications.
Even if he was, Metzger was “also not interested in being prescribed medication for any potential mental health issue that he asserted to have,” according to the state’s attorney’s office. “Brandmeyer further argued that despite Metzger’s claim that he consumed cocaine, THC and alcohol beginning the night prior to and up until the time of the incident, Metzger never sought substance abuse treatment and denied having a substance abuse problem,” they said.
“Today was about Alexis, her family, her friends, and all the people that cared deeply about her,” Brandmeyer explained in a statement. “While no sentence can bring Alexis back. I hope that a new chapter can begin for her family and friends and that they can continue to work closer to obtaining some semblance of closure.”
