NO WAY OUT: Illinois Man Sentenced to Spend the Rest of His Life Behind Bars After De-adly Peoria Gas Station Sh00ting That Left a Family Devastated
PEORIA (25News Now) – A man will spend the rest of his life in an Illinois prison for his role in a fatal 2023 gas station shooting in Peoria.
Lamentae R. Turner, 25, of Decatur was sentenced Friday to natural life in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the murder of 35-year-old Stashaun Wheeler in January 2023 at a Casey’s on Farmington Road.
Turner was convicted by a jury in May 2025 of first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon. Peoria County Judge Stephen Kouri sentenced Turner Friday after multiple continuances were requested by the defense and granted, according to the state’s attorney’s Office.
At sentencing, Wheeler’s mother told the court her life would never be the same and that losing a child is the most painful experience and one can never get over.
“If I have to spend the rest of my life visiting my son in a cemetery, then the defendant should spend the rest of his life in prison,” she told the court, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Peoria County deputies were called in January 2023 to a man reportedly shot at a Casey’s on Farmington Road, finding Wheeler in the parking lot with at least 10 gunshot wounds.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the state’s attorney’s office, surveillance footage showed both Turner and Wheeler at the same nightclub before the shooting. According to additional surveillance and cell phone data, Turner followed Wheeler as he left the club and went to the gas station.
As Wheeler walked from the store to his car, Turner and another man ran up to him and began shooting before fleeing – caught on surveillance video from the Casey’s.
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