Judge Finds 'Killer' Not Guilty of Ambush Murder Outside Joliet Wendy's

A Joliet man jailed for a cold-blooded ambush killing was found not guilty by a Will County judge Monday.

One side of the gallery erupted in cheers when Judge Carla Alessio-Policandriotes announced her verdict for 21-year-old Daeviontae Pruitte. The judge then scolded Pruitte’s supporters and threw three of them out of her courtroom.

“Can you be that ignorant?” Judge Alessio-Policandriotes asked the three young women, telling them they “sat there and giggled and smirked” throughout the trial.

While Alessio-Policandriotes said prosecutors failed to prove that Pruitte shot down Timothy Egner, 54, outside the Center Street Wendy’s, she did concede that they established Pruitte got caught with the gun used in the murder.

Egner was waiting outside the Wendy’s to pick up a family member who had worked the night shift when he was slain in August 2012.

After his arrest, Pruitte was recorded referring to himself as the “killer” and the “little killer” during telephone conversations, said Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Fitzgerald. One of Pruitte’s attorneys, Jason Strzelecki, countered that calling oneself a “killer” is merely a slang expression and similar to referring to oneself as a “player.”

Also during the trial, jailhouse snitch Marshaun Gaston, who disappeared on the day he was to testify, supposedly out of fear for his and his girlfriend’s well-being, recalled asking Pruitte why he was locked up.

“A banger,” Gaston said Pruitte told him. Gaston, 31, explained that “banger” is slang for a gun.

Gaston later said Pruitte confided that he “just got to bustin’,” which translates to shooting the firearm.