Tazewell County Felon Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Gun Possession

PEORIA, Ill. – A Washington, Ill., man, Tyler R. Davis, 25, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for possession of a firearm as a felon. U.S. District Court Judge James E. Shadid sentenced Davis on April 10, and ordered that Davis’s prison term be followed by three years of supervised release. Davis pleaded guilty to the charge on Aug. 16, 2018. 

According to court documents and evidence presented by the government at sentencing, Davis was prohibited from possessing a firearm under state and federal law when he admitted he possessed a gun in July 2016. Davis previously pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aggravated battery of a peace officer in 2014 in Tazewell County. 

At Davis’s sentencing and in court documents, the government presented evidence that on July 15, 2016, Davis and another individual, Anton Grayson, approached homeowners in East Peoria, Ill., and asked if they were shooting at them. When the homeowners replied that they were only shooting off fireworks, Davis and Grayson told the homeowners they would be back with their “crew.”  Based on this threat, the wife and her six-year-old daughter left and went to a nearby family member’s house, while the husband and teenaged son stayed at the home. Shortly thereafter, Davis and Grayson fired multiple rounds into the front of the home. There were no injuries to the home’s residents; however, one .45 caliber bullet from Davis’s firearm was found lodged in the back wall of the home. Law enforcement officers later recovered the guns in a row of bushes approximately a block away after officers learned that Davis had directed his mother and brother to retrieve them.

Both DNA and ballistics testing by the Illinois State Police Department of Forensic Science aided in the investigation. Further, evidence obtained from Snapchat, Inc. showed Davis and Grayson flashing firearms in a “selfie” video with the caption, “retaliation,” posted after the threat and prior to the shooting.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Legge prosecuted the case which was investigated by the East Peoria Police Department. 

Davis has remained in the custody of the Tazewell County Jail and U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest on July 16, 2016. The Tazewell County State’s Attorney’s Office prosecuted Grayson, who was convicted and sentenced to a five-year prison term in the Illinois Department of Corrections.