A 26-year-old man has been sentenced to 95 years in prison for murdering two Elgin men in a staged drug deal near Wing Park four years ago.
Travaris D. Stevenson, of Chicago, and an accomplice arranged to meet the two victims, Raymond Dyson, 29, and Mark McDaniel, 26, to sell them a pound of marijuana on April 29, 2018, according to the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Stevenson got into the back seat of Dyson and McDaniel’s car while it was parked in the first block of Longwood Drive, prosecutors said. He then shot Dyson in the head and McDaniel twice in the back before fleeing, they said.
Elgin police caught the two suspects a half-mile from the crime scene about 20 minutes later, according to the report.
A Kane County jury found Stevenson guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and armed violence in November 2021.
“During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors presented more than two dozen photographs from the defendant’s mobile phone that showed him posing with numerous guns, including AK-type weapons and multiple other guns with extended magazines, many of which included laser sights,” a news release said.
Stevenson was on parole when the photos were taken and prohibited from possessing firearms, the release said.
He was also awaiting trial on Cook County charges in an unrelated drug deal shooting that took place a month prior to the Dyson and McDaniel murders, prosecutors said.
Judge David P. Kliment sentenced Stevenson to 35 years in prison for the first-degree murder and added 25 years because Stevenson personally fired the gun, 20 years for the armed violence and 15 years for the second-degree murder, the release said. The terms are to be served consecutively.
State law mandates Stevenson serve the full murder sentence and at least 85 percent of the armed violence sentence. He is eligible for day-for-day sentencing on the second-degree murder sentence, the release said.
“The murders of Mark McDaniel and Raymond Dyson show why there are laws that prohibit selling large amounts of marijuana,” Assistant State’s Attorneys Greg Sams said in the release.
“Those sales are fraught with the high risk of violence as participants on both sides usually are armed with guns, believing the other side may have motives other than a peaceful drug sale. That is what happened in Elgin on April 29, 2018.”
