A Gurnee man, who was released in 2021 from prison for murder, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on federal charges for trafficking fentanyl and possessing a loaded ghost gun.
William S. Fillyaw, 47, of Gurnee, pleaded guilty earlier this year in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Prosecutors said Fillyaw was found with drugs and a gun on October 28, 2022, in the parking lot of his apartment complex in Gurnee.
Fillyaw was carrying a backpack that contained cocaine packaged in quarter-ounce quantities, fentanyl wrapped in three square bricks and the handgun.
Fillyaw intended to sell the fentanyl and cocaine on the streets and he acknowledged possessing the gun in connection with his drug trafficking activities, prosecutors said.
The loaded firearm had no serial number and had been assembled from a gun kit, making it an untraceable “ghost gun.”.
U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly sentenced Fillyaw on Friday to 12 years in prison.
“Narcotics distribution and firearm offenses are serious crimes that adversely impact the people who live and work in the Northern District of Illinois,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirsten Moran and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Niranjan Emani said in court documents.
“The increased presence of ghost guns in Chicago, and the country in general, is troubling, as they are often used in crimes and are difficult to trace,” the federal prosecutors said.
In addition to the gun and drug charges, Fillyaw was also charged in a separate case at the time of his arrest in federal court with arson of a vehicle and use of arson in furtherance of another felony.
Those charges stemmed from an October 3, 2022, murder that occurred in the 1300 block of Chestnut Street in Waukegan.
Officers responding to a call of shots fired located a vehicle parked in the driveway of a home that had been shot numerous times.
Officers discovered that Sergio Berrios, 42, of Beach Park, who appeared to be in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, had been shot.
Berrios had been shot numerous times and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. Over 20 shell casings were spotted on the street in front of the residence.
Jamonte J. Davis, 24, of Zion, was charged in Lake County Circuit Court with one count of first-degree murder in connection with the shooting.
Fillyaw’s charges in the incident were for burning the suspect getaway vehicle, which was discovered engulfed in flames in Wisconsin following the homicide. Cell phone data also placed Fillyaw at the scene of the murder.
In 2009, Fillyaw and a co-defendant were convicted of murdering a woman in North Chicago in June 2007.
Fillyaw was sentenced to 75 years in prison but appealed the conviction.
The Illinois Second District Appellate Court reversed the conviction against Fillyaw in 2011 and ordered a new trial.
The retrial took place in January 2015 and a jury again convicted Fillyaw.
A judge sentenced Fillyaw to 100 years in prison, which was longer than his first sentence because the judge determined Fillyaw participated in witness tampering during the second trial.
Fillyaw filed an appeal a second time with the Illinois Second District Appellate Court, which reversed the conviction due to a trial technicality and ordered a new trial.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office reached a plea deal in December 2021 with Fillyaw where he pleaded guilty to one count of residential burglary, a Class 1 felony, in exchange for his murder and attempted murder charges being dismissed.
A judge approved the plea agreement and sentenced both men to 15 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections at 50%, with credit for almost 5,300 days already served.
With the credit, the 7 ½ year sentence was considered served and Fillyaw was released on parole, less than a year prior to him being arrested for the gun and drug charges out of Gurnee and the arson charges in connection with the Waukegan murder.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office previously defended the plea deal that Fillyaw was given in the North Chicago murder.