Jailhouse Snitch Says Alleged Killer Told Him He Had A Gun and 'Just Got to Bustin' '

A reluctant jailhouse snitch took the witness stand at a murder trial and recounted a two-year-old conversation with an alleged killer.

Marshaun Gaston, 31, told how he spoke with 21-year-old Daeviontae Pruitte back in the fall of 2012 while they were both locked up in the Will County jail. Gaston was in on a charge of delivery of a controlled substance. He said he asked Pruitte what he had been arrested for.

“A banger,” Gaston recalled Pruitte telling him, and explained that meant a gun. He later said Pruitte confided, “I just got to bustin’,” which translates to shooting the firearm.

Three months or so before Gaston and Pruitte had their talk, someone walked up to a car parked outside the Center Street Wendy’s and opened fire on the man sitting behind the wheel. The ambushed man, 54-year-old Timothy Egner, was killed. Pruitte was charged with his murder.

Gaston was supposed to testify two weeks ago but never showed up to court. The Joliet police captured him in Chicago a week ago. Judge Carla Alessio-Policandriotes ordered Gaston to be held at the county jail until he testified Monday.

Detective John Ross and public defender Amy Christiansen told the judge that Gaston claimed he was afraid to testify against Pruitte.

“He said he was scared, he had been threatened,” Ross said.

After Gaston finished testifying, Judge Alessio-Policandriotes said he could walk free from jail but Christiansen pointed out that a parole violation warrant might keep him from leaving anytime soon.