Suspect in 2018 Elgin double murder wants statements banned from trial
A 23-year-old Chicago man charged with killing two people in Elgin over a pound of marijuana is arguing he was denied an attorney during questioning and wants his statements banned from a potential trial.
Defense attorney Paul DeLuca argues in a motion to suppress statements made by his client, Travaris D. Stevenson, of the 5200 block of West Congress Parkway, that police coerced Stevenson into waiving his Miranda rights, or right to remain silent and have an attorney present during questioning.
Stevenson and Lee P. Spain, 33, of the 8000 block of Ellis Street in Chicago, each face a potential sentence of natural life in prison if found guilty of first-degree murder in the April 29, 2018, shooting deaths of Mark M. McDaniel, 26, and Raymond Dyson, 29, both of Elgin.
McDaniel and Dyson were gunned down along Longwood Place at the Garden Quarter apartments on the city's near west side during an afternoon drug deal for marijuana, according to an Elgin police report obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Stevenson and Spain were arrested about 20 minutes later on the 1100 block of Royal Boulevard, which is north of the crime scene, according to police.
Several witness statements matched the descriptions of the two, according to police, and officers recovered two large bags containing 471 grams of marijuana, or a little more than 16 ounces.
Stevenson was arrested April 29 "without probable cause or legal process of any kind" and held for more than eight hours without being told why he was being detained, DeLuca argues. Stevenson asked to make a phone call to his grandmother so she could call a lawyer and the request was denied.
Detectives asked Stevenson, who dropped out of high school just three weeks into his freshman year, to sign a form waiving his Miranda rights, but he told police he was "not good at reading and writing" and didn't understand certain words on the form, DeLuca argues.
"Any alleged waiver of these rights was not made knowingly or intelligently by the defendant," read part of the motion.
That night, Stevenson asked for an attorney or to make a phone call at least two more times and eventually was told he could call the next morning at 6:30 a.m., according to the motion. At 9:45 p.m. May 1, about 55 hours after he was first detained, according to the motion, detectives presented Stevenson with charging documents accusing him of eight counts of murder and did not re-advise him of his Miranda rights, DeLuca argues.
"This trick of getting him to talk a second time worked, as he still expressed confusion about the eight counts of murder, and eventually gave several hours of incriminating statements," according to the motion, which does not detail exactly what Stevenson told police.
DeLuca is slated to argue his client's motion before Judge David Kliment on Oct. 2; Spain is next due in court Oct. 3
Stevenson and Spain are being held at the Kane County jail on $5 million bail each since their arrests.