Tyler Skerett showed up Easter Sunday at a friend’s house in Ottawa, angry and uttering threats against some individuals: “Going to (mess) them up,” and, “Knock them out,” a witness said Thursday.

Not long afterward, Streator police were alerted to a shooting. Camryn Merritte, 17, died from a pair of gunshot wounds and Delargo Gullens and James Forbes were injured. Neither of the survivors cooperated in the ensuing murder investigation.

The friend who heard Skerett’s murderous threats, Charles Spencer, did cooperate (eventually) and testified Thursday in La Salle County Circuit Court that Skerett, after uttering his threats, changed his clothes and headed out the door.

If jurors believe Spencer, Skerett could be headed to prison for 45 years for first-degree murder, with more time coming if he’s convicted of firing the shots that struck and injured Gullens and Forbes.

But Skerett’s lawyers have challenged Spencer’s credibility. Spencer is charged with multiple felonies – prosecutors acknowledged a deal to limit prison time– and had grievances of his own with the shooting victims.

Prosecutors might not need Spencer’s testimony to convict Skerett, however. Throughout Skerett’s murder trial, begun Monday, two dozen witnesses placed a dark-colored Chevy Cruze at the scene of the shooting and tracked it to Ottawa, Streator and Peoria using home and commercial surveillance systems and Flock cameras.

Thursday, prosecutors may have linked Skerett to the Cruze. Jurors were shown video from a Clark gas station in Streator showing a masked man exiting the Cruze. Video retrieved from and displayed in open court, Spencer’s home showed Skerett wearing what appeared to be the same clothes, with a mask lowered beneath his chin.

Defense attorneys argued that Skerett might have been linked to the car, but insist that no evidence to date places Skerett directly at the scene of the shooting or to a weapon.

“You never once saw Tyler Skerett with a gun, did you?” defense attorney Ryan Hamer asked one of the police witnesses.

“I did not,” replied Tyson Szafranski, a La Salle County sheriff’s deputy.

Hamer also pointed out police never secured or tested the clothing that did appear in the video.

“That clothing was never recovered, was it?” Hamer asked.

“Not to my knowledge, no.”

Skerett was developed by police as a suspect two days after the shooting and was apprehended three months later when a fugitive team in Chicago, acting on a tip, searched for him and pulled over the vehicle in which he was riding.

Skerett ran from the traffic stop and was apprehended. Inside his pocket was a bus ticket to Colorado. Also in his pocket was a cellular phone that contained some problematic text messages.

According to open-court statements, Skerett sent messages (to an undisclosed recipient) that he needed a new identity, and, “I am a wanted man.”

Days before he was apprehended, Skerett sent more texts. One of them read, “One of y’all is dead. I’m happy.”

Closing arguments will be Friday.