Joliet's Last Murder, 'She Heard A Statement From Defendant That He Would Go Get His Gun': Prosecutors

JOLIET, IL —It's been 10 days since the city of Joliet's last murder took place. Willis Ellis, age 58, has been charged by the Will County State's Attorney's Office with three counts of first-degree murder surrounding the death of 60-year-old Lyndon Hunt. Both the homicide victim and the murder defendant lived in the same apartment house in the 200 block of Nicholson Street.

The Will County State's Attorney's Office filed a petition to deny pretrial release for Ellis and it's been approved by Will County Republican Judge Donald DeWilkens.

The document provides a lot of details surrounding the events leading up to the Nicholson Street homicide.

According to prosecutors, officers from Joliet police responded to 256 Nicholson after a 911 call for shots fired at 4:42 p.m. on May 8. The officers found Hunt lying on the ground in front of his house with a gunshot to his stomach. Ellis was standing outside of the house and he informed the Joliet police that the handgun used in the shooting was next to the stairs on the railing, prosecutors noted.

The victim was rushed to St. Joe's Hospital for surgery for his gunshot wound. However, Hunt died from his injuries shortly after his arrival. The May 9 autopsy confirmed that the gunshot wound caused Hunt's death.

According to prosecutors, the gun used in the slaying was a Taurus G2C 9mm handgun and Ellis possesses both an active FOID and a CCL. Ellis, the murder defendant, was the person who actually called 911. "He identified himself by name as the shooter and stated the victim had been threatening him. Defendant's wife provided Blink camera footage which recorded an incident immediately preceding the shooting as well as the shooting itself."

Prosecutors informed Judge DeWilkens that "in the first portion, the defendant is grilling on the porch and the victim, shirtless, is arguing with the defendant verbally. Neither (person) touches the other and the victim goes down the stairs and into the yard, where he appears to be challenging the defendant to a fistfight in the yard. The second clip shows the victim still down the stairs in the front yard and the defendant charging at him from the top of the stairs, calling him a mother****** and firing a handgun at him" court documents reveal.

Prosecutors pointed out that Hunt, the homicide victim, "was not approaching the defendant at the time of the shooting. There is no evidence on the video that the victim was armed and no evidence recovered on scene indicating the victim was armed."

Meanwhile, a girl preparing for her Joliet high school prom later told Joliet police that as she looked out her front door, she saw three men with the victim. These men all left the scene when Ellis and Hunt began their arguing. "She heard a statement that he would go get his gun if the victim kept getting in his face," court documents indicated. "She then turned away from the door where she was watching and soon thereafter heard a gunshot. When she looked again, the victim was lying in the front yard where he was located. Other neighbors heard arguing and then one gunshot but did not witness anything.

Prosecutors pointed out that the victim's wife described an ongoing dispute between her husband and Ellis, who lives upstairs from them. "She stated that the defendant would repeatedly stomp on his floor as a protest to noise, even when they were not making any noise in the middle of the night and there were back and forth issues between her husband and the defendant of this nature."

Judge DeWilkens checked the box indicating that the dangerousness standard has been met with Ellis and he will now be kept in the Will County Jail under the SAFE-T-Act. Ellis is being represented by private counsel, David McDermott.