Man gets 73 years in Elgin murder
From Staff Reports July 24, 2012 5:34PM
Updated: August 26, 2012 6:21AM
A Chicago man who shot to death another man outside an Elgin banquet hall in 2008 and then was seriously injured when struck by a car as he ran from the scene of the shooting has been sentenced to 73 years in prison.
Dion Spears, 29, was sentenced Tuesday by Associate Judge Patricia P. Golden.
Spears was convicted May 10 by a Kane County jury of first-degree murder, armed violence and unlawful possession of a controlled substance. In addition, the jury found that Spears personally discharged the handgun that caused the death of the victim, 29-year-old Derrick Bey.
At about 2 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2008, Spears and Bey were outside a banquet hall in the 800 block of North State Street in Elgin. An argument broke out, and Spears fired two shots from a Colt .32-caliber revolver that both struck Bey, one in the chest and one below the waist. Bey died a short time later, witnesses said.
Spears began to run across State Street when he was struck by a car and seriously injured. While Spears was in an ambulance later, a police officer found a loaded Kel-Tec 9mm Luger semiautomatic handgun on him. At the hospital, Spears was found to have a small amount of cocaine hidden in his mouth, according to police.
In passing sentence, Golden noted Spears’ criminal history, including having served three prior prison terms, all for drug-related offenses. In addition, Spears was on mandatory supervised release at the time of the murder.
The sentence breaks down as 32 years for the murder, 16 years for the armed violence and three years for the possession of a controlled substance. The sentence includes a mandatory 25-year enhancement because Spears fired the handgun that killed Bey.
Spears must serve 100 percent of the murder sentence and the mandatory enhancement, and is eligible for day-for-day sentencing for the armed violence and controlled substance sentences. The murder sentence and enhancement, as well as the armed violence sentence, are to be served consecutively. The controlled substance sentence is to be served concurrent to the other sentences, according to a press release from the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Spears was given credit for at least 1,217 days served in the Kane County jail, where he had been held since his arrest.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorneys Scott Schwertley and Dan Carter.
