Man pleads guilty to lesser crime in Crest Hill Taco Bell slaying

Joliet — A Plainfield man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old man about two years ago outside a Crest Hill Taco Bell restaurant.

Dwight Watkins, 25, was initially facing a charge of first-degree murder for the April 24, 2020, incident outside Taco Bell, 1818 Plainfield Road. The area lies just northwest of the Joliet city limits.

That charge ultimately changed on Wednesday when prosecutors dismissed the first-degree murder charge and filed a second-degree murder charge against Watkins, according to Watkins’ attorney, Steven Haney. Watkins also was represented by attorney Jeff Tomczak.

Watkins agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder, Haney said. Watkins was sentenced to serve 50% of a 16-year prison sentence, he said.

Haney said it was Watkins’ unreasonable belief that he was acting in self-defense during the incident that caused the case to become one of second-degree murder.

The incident involved a drug deal in which Watkins was going to deliver marijuana to Spruell, who actually had plans to rob him, Haney said.

“It was in essence an armed robbery gone bad,” Haney said.

Watkins arrived for the drug deal armed, pulled out his firearm and shot Spruell in reaction to Spruell pulling out his firearm, Haney said. Spruell had a gunshot wound to the lower left back.

Watkins raised the self-defense claim in a motion to have his $2.5 million bond reduced to $250,000. The motion was denied.

Messages and a call to Will County State’s Attorney’s Office were not immediately returned.

Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Fleszewski said in a court hearing last year that Spruell was unarmed when he was shot in the back after a struggle inside a vehicle at the scene.

At the time of Watkins’ arrest in 2020, Crest Hill Police Chief Ed Clark said that Watkins and Spruell were at the parking lot in Crest Hill for a drug transaction when the two got into a fight, and Watkins shot Spruell with a pistol.

Clark said Spruell suffered a single gunshot wound.

Officers found evidence of a gun attack outside the Taco Bell but no sign of a victim, he said. Officers later learned Spruell died at AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet.