A 53-year-old Yorktown man who was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend by shooting her in the back of the head in 2003 has been sentenced to 70 years in prison.
On May 26, Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser announced that a jury found Prince L. Cunningham guilty of the offense of First-Degree Murder (a Class M felony) for the May 2003 shooting death of 22-year-old Tyesha Bell of Aurora. Today, Judge Julia Yetter sentenced Cunningham to 70 years of imprisonment in the Illinois Department of Correction.
According to prosecutors, during the early morning hours of May 9, 2003, Bell left her Aurora apartment, where she lived with her sister and 1-year-old daughter, to meet Cunningham, who was already married but was in a dating relationship with Bell and was the father of her daughter. Cunningham told Bell he would meet her outside the apartment and give her money to buy a new car. The last call Bell received on her cell phone was from Cunningham. Bell left behind her purse, driver’s license, and a burning candle and was never seen or heard from again.
In the months prior, Cunningham convinced Bell to end their court-ordered child support arrangement and instead let him give her cash. They frequently met to exchange money. Cunningham also once called the police on Bell after she showed up at his house in Aurora, where he lived at the time with his wife.
In the days after Bell’s disappearance, Cunningham lied to police about his relationship with Bell, stating that he hadn’t spoken on the phone with her in months and claiming that he was not the father of their daughter. Cunningham also contacted the Montgomery Police Department claiming that a pair of Converse shoes had been stolen from his car and suggested Bell may have been involved. He additionally contacted his wireless carrier to ask that his phone be deactivated and number changed, and he gave his car to his niece, creating a months-long delay for police attempting to locate and search the vehicle.
Bell’s disappearance was considered a missing persons case for 17 years until December 2020, when a surveyor found Bell’s skeletal remains on property being developed in the Village of Montgomery. A Converse shoe, appearing to be the same age as the remains, was also found. An autopsy and forensic analysis determined the remains belonged to Tyesha Bell and that she had died from a single gunshot wound to the back of her head.
Cunningham was indicted and arrested on June 14, 2022.
“This sentence justly represents the horrific choice that Prince Cunningham made when he chose to take the life of Tyesha Bell,” said Mosser. “He robbed Tyesha’s daughters of their mother and robbed her family of a sister and a daughter, and he did so purely out of his own selfishness. Although no sentence can undo the pain caused by this defendant, today’s outcome delivers the justice Tyesha deserves. It also honors the relentless efforts of everyone who refused to let this case go unsolved, despite the defendant’s lies, attempts to distance himself from the crime, and continued refusal even today to take accountability for his actions.”
