Bolingbrook man charged in murder case was business partner with shooting victim

A Bolingbrook man charged with murder was a business partner with the man he is accused of fatally shooting before leaving his body inside a vehicle in a parking lot, court records show.

The case against Sammy Gibson, 58, marked the culmination of a Bolingbrook Police Department investigation into the fatal shooting that occurred about a year ago.

On Dec. 4, 2022, officers found Eric Stubblefield, 38, of Naperville shot to death in a vehicle in a parking lot on the 600 block of West Boughton in Road Bolingbrook.

A police investigation led to the arrest of Gibson on Nov. 21 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, police said.

Gibson was taken to the Will County jail Nov. 29 on a charge of first-degree murder. Gibson also is charged with concealment of Stubblefield’s homicide.

Stubblefield’s family members told police that he and Gibson were “partners in business, but Eric was not happy with Sammy and how Sammy ran things when Eric was in jail,” according to a petition filed by prosecutors.

The prosecutors’ petition requested the denial of Gibson’s release from jail. On Dec. 1, Will County Judge Dave Carlson ordered Gibson to remain in custody.

Officers found Stubblefield’s body when a caller told them about seeing a Jeep with tinted windows in the parking lot Dec. 5 and 6, 2022, according to prosecutors.

The investigation led police to learn Gibson was driving a Jeep, with Stubblefield as a passenger, on Dec. 4, 2022, prosecutors said. The two men had gone to a restaurant in Bolingbrook.

Gibson is charged with trying to hide Stubblefield’s death by parking the vehicle in the parking lot on Boughton Road.