Man pleads guilty, sentenced to 37 years for 2020 DeKalb gas station murder

SYCAMORE – A 27-year-old Montgomery man pleaded guilty this month to murdering a DeKalb man in a 2020 gas station shooting, and was sentenced by a judge to 37 years in prison.

After evading police for more than a year following a July 4, 2020, FasMart shooting that killed 29-year-old Chrishun Keeler-Tyus, Esaiah M. Escamilla, was arrested on Aug. 9, 2021, by police and charged with first-degree murder. He escaped across the U.S.-Mexico border but later was arrested attempting to return to the states, prosecutor Scott Schwertley said.

Escamilla is the fourth person to plead guilty in the murder. His plea halted planned jury trial proceedings in the Fourth of July shooting that left a man dead in front of his young children.

On Feb. 5, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in front of Circuit Court Judge Philip Montgomery. In return, Montgomery sentenced Escamilla to 37 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

“Are you guilty of this offense?” Montgomery asked Escamilla the hearing. “Did you do this?”

“Yes,” Escamilla said in response.

Escamilla originally was charged with first-degree murder, a Class M felony, attempted first degree murder, aggravated battery, criminal damage to property, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felony, aggravated discharge of a firearm, mob action and armed violence.

“I am happy to get justice and closure for two more families whose loved ones were taken from them.”

—  DeKalb County State's Attorney Riley Oncken

Upon release, Escamilla also is ordered to serve three years of parole. He’ll get credit for the more than three years he’s been held without release at DeKalb County jail in Sycamore, or 1,277 days, prosecutors said.

He must serve 100% of his sentence. His minimum sentence was 37 years. He could have faced 75 years maximum, Montgomery said.

Three others, all family members, also faced charges including murder.

Though jury trials were scheduled in those cases, the defendants pleaded guilty also, court records show.

DeKalb husband and wife Jimmy D. Edwards, now 36, and Katrina L. Edwards, now 39, were charged, along with Jimmy’s brother, Emanuel Edwards.

The couple was expected to stand trial together. The husband and wife pleaded guilty in April 2024 in exchange for agreeing to testify against the two other co-defendants at the time – Jimmy Edwards’ brother, Emanuel Edwards, and Escamilla, who prosecutors said fired the gun. Emanuel Edwards and Escamilla also were expected to stand trial together in May 2024.

Emanuel Edwards pleaded guilty on Oct. 9, 2024. He has not yet been sentenced, records show. His next court date is 9 a.m. Feb. 18.

Since both Emanuel Edwards and Escamilla also pleaded guilty, the husband and wife are expected to be sentenced by Montgomery later this month.

Katrina Edwards is expected to get 6 years in prison. She’ll have to serve at least 85% of that sentence and three years of mandatory supervised release, though she will get credit for the nearly 5 years she’s spent in jail so far. Jimmy Edwards is expected to be sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the shooting. He’ll have to serve at least 50% of that and also 18 months of mandatory supervised release.

“So if you testify truthfully, that’s the deal you get,” Montgomery said to Jimmy Edwards in the April 2024 hearing.

It was a midday holiday shooting that authorities have said came after Katrina Edwards got into a verbal argument with Keeler-Tyus inside the FasMart, 933 S. Fourth St.

Katrina’s burgundy sedan was parked on the opposite side of the same gas pump Keeler-Tyues and his family were using, prosecutors have said.

In the Feb. 5 hearing, Schwertley said if Escamilla’s case had gone to trial, prosecutors would have called witnesses to show how that argument quickly became deadly.

Katrina Edwards was inside the FasMart at the county on July 4, 2020, when Keeler-Tyus entered the shop and stood in line. After a brief argument between the two, Keeler-Tyus left and back back to his car which was parked outside the a gas pump. Prosecutors didn’t say what the two argued about.

Katrina Edwards then called her husband, Jimmy Edwards, Schwertley said.

Former prosecutor Stephanie Klein told a judge back in 2020 that multiple witnesses heard Katrina call her husband and say, “You need to come down here and take care of this...,” citing court records.

En route, Jimmy Edwards called his brother Emanuel, who was in a separate car, a black Dodge Avenger, at the time with Escamilla. Jimmy Edwards asked them to meet him at FasMart. When both vehicles arrived – Jimmy Edwards in one and Escamilla and Emanuel Edwards in the other – Katrina pointed out Keeler-Tyus. Emanuel Edwards drove his vehicle toward the victim, and Escamilla fired out the window, Schwertley said.

Seven gunshots rang out. Police recovered seven shell casings and bullets from the shooting, prosecutors said. Surveillance video footage from the area also showed the shooting unfold, prosecutors said.

Keeler-Tyus and his girlfriend had been preparing to take his children on a holiday outing to the beach, authorities said. His girlfriend also suffered gunshot wounds but survived. Keeler-Tyus was gunned down while his three children watched from inside their car nearby. The victim’s eldest, a 5-year-old at the time, “reported seeing his daddy shot,” according to police reports.

Escamilla’s plea this month marked the third pending murder case in DeKalb County to see a resolution in 2025 so far. Jonathan D. Hurst, formerly of Chicago, was found guilty last month after lengthy trial proceedings in the 2016 double murder of elderly Sycamore mother and son Patricia Wilson and Robert Wilson. And a week ago, Timothy M. Doll pleaded guilty to murdering DeKalb teenager Gracie Sasso-Cleveland a month before his trial was expected to begin. The DeKalb High School freshman was suffocated to death in May 2023.

In a news release, DeKalb County State’s Attorney Riley Oncken praised his team for their work on the cases. He said prosecutors were prepared to take proceedings to trial as planned.

“To clear two more murder cases from our caseload in one week is a tribute to the hard work of law enforcement and my staff,” Oncken said in a statement. “I am happy to get justice and closure for two more families whose loved ones were taken from them. Crimes like murder and other crimes of violence in DeKalb County will be met with justice from my office.”