On the afternoon of April 29, 2018, 26-year-old Travaris D. Stevenson came from Chicago to Elgin for a drug deal. He and another man ended up shooting two men in the back of the head.
For that act, he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie L. Mosser yesterday announced that Stevenson has been sentenced to 95 years of imprisonment in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the murder of Raymond Dyson and Mark McDaniel, both of Elgin.
In November of 2021, a Kane County Jury found Stevenson guilty of the felony offenses of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and armed violence.
At about 2 p.m. on April 29, 2018, Stevenson and his co-defendant met Dyson, 29, and McDaniel, 26, in a parking lot in the 1-99 block of Longwood Place, Elgin. Stevenson traveled from Chicago to Elgin to sell a pound of marijuana to the victims. Stevenson got into the back seat of a car. Dyson and McDaniel were in the front seats. Stevenson shot Dyson in the back of the head, McDaniel twice in the back and then fled on foot with the co-defendant and the marijuana. Elgin police caught the men a half-mile from the crime scene about 20 minutes later.
During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors presented more than two dozen photographs from the defendant’s mobile phone that showed him posing with numerous guns, including AK-type weapons, and multiple other guns with extended magazines, many of which included laser sights. All of these photographs were taken while the defendant was on parole for a previous felony and was prohibited from possessing guns.
“The murders of Mark McDaniel and Raymond Dyson show why there are laws that prohibit selling large amounts of marijuana,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Greg Sams. “Those sales are fraught with the high risk of violence, as participants on both sides usually are armed with guns, believing the other side may have motives other than a peaceful drug sale.
“That is what happened in Elgin on April 29, 2018. The defendant shot Raymond Dyson in the back of the head, and Mark McDaniel in the back, killing both of them. His actions, his criminal history, his infatuation with possessing guns when he was on parole and prohibited from doing so, all were reasons for the judge to hand down this sentence, which will protect the community from the defendant for many years.”
Stevenson is also charged in Cook County in an unrelated shooting during a drug transaction that occurred a month before he murdered Dyson and McDaniel.
The sentence is 35 years for the first-degree murder plus a 25-year enhancement because Stevenson personally fired the gun, 20 years for the armed violence and 15 years for the second-degree murder. The terms are to be served consecutively.
According to Illinois law, Stevenson must serve the full murder sentence, must serve at least 85 percent of the armed violence sentence, and is eligible for day-for-day sentencing on the second-degree murder sentence.
Stevenson receives credit for 1,428 days served in the Kane County jail.
