Life sentence for Urbana man convicted in 2 murders in 2017 at Danville house
Apr. 26—DANVILLE — An Urbana man convicted of the murders of two Danville men in that city almost six years ago will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Vermilion County Judge Derek Girton imposed the life sentence Wednesday on Nicholas Trimble, 42, whose last local address was in the 2500 block of Prairie Green Drive.
The sentencing was pro forma for the judge since a jury found Trimble guilty in February of two murders, making a sentence of life without the possibility of parole mandatory. Trimble has been in jail for 1,464 days.
Under the theory advanced by assistant attorneys general Brian Holmes and Dan Weiler, on Sept. 4, 2017, Trimble shot and killed Rafael Arevalo, 26, while robbing him of cannabis, and was accountable for the shooting death of Omar Roman, 26.
Trimble's attorney, Mike Zopf of Champaign, said there was evidence of a second shooter in the home in the 500 block of Harvey Street that the two deceased men used as their base of operations for selling cannabis.
However, no one else has ever been arrested or charged.
Video evidence showed Trimble apparently carrying cannabis out the house after having shot Mr. Arevalo in the kitchen, where the drugs were.
Mr. Roman, who had admitted the would-be drug customers to the home off Bowman Avenue, was killed as he sat on the couch in the living room.
The case was investigated by Danville police. Trimble wasn't arrested until April 2019.
He's been in custody since then. Zopf was his fourth lawyer.
