A man has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for pleading guilty in connection with the “cold-blooded and calculated” ambush murder and robbery of a victim outside a Waukegan motel.
Shava Jackson-Spicer, 29, of Joliet, and Darius Kirby, 34, of Riverdale, were both charged in March 2021 with multiple counts of first-degree murder.
The Waukegan Police Department and Park City Police Department responded on August 26, 2020, to Motel 6, 31 North Green Bay Road in Waukegan, for a report of shots fired.
Officers arrived and located a victim, identified as Jerry L. Reid Jr., 32, of Joliet, outside the motel with six gunshot wounds.
Reid was transported to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Surveillance videos played at trial in March showed Kirby arriving at the motel in a black Dodge Challenger, which was owned by him.
Kirby and two others were seen as they searched and waited for Reid to exit the motel, prosecutors said.
The videos also showed Kirby and the two others chase the victim to the side of the motel where he was later discovered critically injured by police officers.
Officers testified to finding a Dodge Challenger key fob near where Reid was found. The same key fob unlocked the Dodge Challenger registered to Kirby.
Other expert witnesses were able to place Kirby at the crime scene through cellphone records and tollway records.
Kirby was convicted of the charges following the March jury trial, which spanned five days.
Jackson-Spicer, who has not gone on trial yet, entered into a negotiated plea deal on Thursday with the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office.
He pleaded guilty to one count of armed robbery with a firearm, a Class X felony, in exchange for his murder charges being dismissed.
Jackson-Spicer was sentenced to 24 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections pursuant to the plea, which was accepted by a judge.
He will receive over 1,300 days of credit for time spent in the Lake County Jail awaiting his case.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said after the March trial that Kirby committed a “cold-blooded and calculated murder that he contemplated as he made the long drive from Joliet, Illinois, to Waukegan.”
“Mr. Kirby then laid in wait for his victim. This type of planned murder warrants a very lengthy prison sentence,” Rinehart said.
Lake County Judge George Strickland revoked Kirby’s ability to post bond following the verdict.
Kirby, who has not been sentenced yet, faces 20 to 60 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
He is scheduled to appear in court again on November 14.