Waukegan teen pleads guilty in murder

A Waukegan teenager faces a minimum of 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder Tuesday in Lake County Circuit Court.

Willie Walls was 16 years old when he shot and killed Herman Allison, 25, of Zion, on March 6, 2007.

Assistant State's Attorney Reginald Matthews said Walls, of the 1400 block of North Avenue, had planned to rob Allison when he went to Allison's apartment on the night of the murder.

Walls called Allison from outside the apartment, Matthews said, and pulled out a pistol when Allison walked outside. Allison turned to run back into the apartment building, but Walls gave chase and shot him once in the chest in a hallway.

Police found Allison's body outside the building in the 3000 block of Elizabeth Avenue. Walls was arrested about three weeks after the shooting.

Walls gave detectives from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force a 40-minute videotaped confession that Circuit Judge Fred Foreman ruled was legally obtained after a hearing in April.

Foreman, who accepted Walls' plead to first-degree murder Tuesday, told him he will face a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison.

In exchange for the guilty plea, Matthews agreed to drop a more serious charge of murder that would have required a sentence of 45 years to life without parole. The more severe penalty was mandated because a gun was used in the crime, Matthews said.

Foreman did not set a sentencing date, but ordered Walls to appear in court Aug. 23.

Walls is held in the Lake County jail on $1.5 million bond.