UPDATE 2-Judge sentences ex-Chicago policeman to 81 months jail

A judge on Friday sentenced white former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke to 81 months in prison after a landmark verdict last fall found him guilty of murder in the 2014 shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald.

Van Dyke, 40, appearing unshaven and wearing a yellow-orange jail uniform in court, faced up to 20 years in prison for his second-degree murder conviction and up to 30 years for each of 16 counts of aggravated battery - one count for each shot he fired at McDonald, who was carrying a knife.

The verdict in October marked the first time an on-duty Chicago police officer was held criminally accountable for the killing of an African-American, and touched off celebratory street demonstrations in Chicago.

The jury's verdict followed numerous acquittals or mistrials of police officers facing criminal charges across the country in the deaths of black men.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Gaughan presided over Van Dyke's sentencing hearing.

The hearing came a day after another judge found three of Van Dyke's former police colleagues not guilty of conspiring to protect him after he fatally shot 17-year-old McDonald.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales and Robert Chiarito in Chicago Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Sonya Hepinstall)