The getaway driver in the execution-style slaying of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Tuesday, just a week before the trial was to begin.
Kevin Edwards, 26, pleaded guilty in exchange for a sentence of 25 years in prison.
Edwards was charged with two other men after Tyshawn was lured into an alley in 2015 and shot to death near his home. His death became the latest example of Chicago’s brutal and entrenched cycle of gang violence and retaliation.
Edwards and the other two, Corey Morgan and Dwright Doty, targeted Tyshawn because his father was a member of a rival gang suspected of shooting Morgan’s brother, Assistant State’s Attorney Thomas Darman said in court Tuesday.
The group went looking for Tyshawn at Dawes Park, Darman said. “They all intended that harm was to befall Lee on that day,” the prosecutor said. “They all knew that he was 9 years old.”
Edwards waited nearby in a black Ford Edge while Doty walked with the boy into an alley and shot him in the head, Darman said. Edwards then drove them from the scene.
Edwards’ 25-year sentence is five years more than the mandatory minimum.
Upon release, Edwards will have to register for life as a violent offender, Judge Thaddeus Wilson noted. Edwards declined to speak on his own behalf before Wilson imposed the sentence.
Doty and Morgan are expected to select jurors for their trials next week.
The plea is a last-minute reversal for Edwards, who in recent weeks had rejected a similar plea deal. Edwards was the last to be arrested for Tyshawn’s death. He was picked up in May 2016, months after the slaying, in downstate Vermilion County.
Getaway driver in slaying of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee pleads guilty to murder charge
The getaway driver in the execution-style slaying of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Tuesday, just a week before the trial was to begin.
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