73-year sentence for 2008 Elgin banquet hall murder

A Chicago man was sentenced to 73 years in prison Tuesday for a 2008 slaying outside an Elgin nightclub.

A Kane County jury in May convicted Dion Spears, 29, of the 9700 block of South Princeton Avenue, of gunning down 29-year-old Derrick Bey on the 800 block of North State Street.

In addition to first-degree murder, Spears also was found guilty of armed violence and possession of a controlled substance.

Prosecutors said Spears and Bey were outside a banquet hall on Feb. 3, 2008, when they began arguing. Spears shot Bey twice, once in the chest and once below the waist, with a Colt .32 caliber revolver before running across North State Street, authorities said.

Spears was hit by a car and seriously injured. A police officer found a loaded Kel-Tec 9mm Luger semiautomatic handgun on Spears as he rode in an ambulance, prosecutors said. At the hospital, authorities found that Spears was hiding 0.9 grams of cocaine in his mouth, prosecutors said.

Kane County Judge Patricia Golden noted that Spears had been to prison three times before, all for drug offenses. He must serve all of the 57-year sentence for murder, but can have his 16-year sentence halved for good behavior under state law. Spears also gets credit for about three years and four months he spent in the county jail while his case was pending.

Kane County Assistant State’s Attorneys Scott Schwertley and Dan Carter prosecuted the case.