December 04, 2021
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Crime & Courts

Montgomery man accused of murder faces new charges after inmate fight at DeKalb County Jail

By Kelsey Rettke

Esaiah M. Escamilla, of the first block of Circle Court in Montgomery, is charged with 19 criminal counts, including first-degree murder, in the shooting death of 29-year-old Chrishun Keeler-Tyus, who died after he was shot following a verbal argument with a husband and wife duo at the gas station on July 4. One Oct. 14, 2021, he was also charged in an unrelated matter after a fight broke out between inmates at the DeKalb County Jail. (Mark Black for Shaw Local)

SYCAMORE - A Montgomery man facing first-degree murder charges after a fatal July 4, 2020 shooting faces additional charges in an unrelated matter, after a fight broke out between inmates at DeKalb County Jail last week, according to court records.

Esaiah M. Escamilla, of the first block of Circle Court in Montgomery, is charged with misdemeanor battery and appeared for a virtual bond hearing in front of DeKalb County Associate Judge Joseph Voiland on Thursday. Escamilla has been in jail after his arrest in September on the murder charges. He had evaded police capture since the July 4 shooting last year.

[ Suspected shooter arrested after evading police since July 4, 2020 murder at FasMart in DeKalb ]

The battery charge is unrelated to the fatal shooting, records show, and came after corrections officers said Escamilla provoked another inmate at the DeKalb County Jail, according to DeKalb County court records.

On Oct. 10, Escamilla was charged with battery after sheriff’s deputies said he knowingly and without justification made physical contact of an insulting and provoking nature with another inmate, records state. Prosecutors said Escamilla struck the other inmate in the head and body, and pushed him into a cell in the DeKalb County Jail, 150 N. Main St. in Sycamore.

During the bond hearing, Voiland set Escamilla’s bond for the misdemeanor case at $1,000, with $100 needed to post for release. However, Escamilla already is being held in DeKalb County Jail with no bond related to his first-degree murder charge from the July 4 shooting.

In regards to the 2020 shooting, Escamilla is charged with 19 criminal counts, including first-degree murder, in the shooting death of 29-year-old Chrishun Keeler-Tyus, who died after he was shot following a verbal argument with a husband and wife duo at a gas station. Police said Keeler-Tyus’s young children were in the car at the time he was shot.

Sycamore-based attorney Brian Erwin, who’s representing Escamilla in DeKalb County courts, also appeared for Escamilla’s hearing on the misdemeanor charge this week.

Escamilla is expected to appear for a status hearing on both cases at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in front of a DeKalb County judge.