A DuPage County jury has found 25-year-old Bellwood resident Robert Chatman-Jones guilty of first-degree murder in the 2021 shooting death of Coreon Davis, a killing that grew out of a gun sale gone wrong in a Naperville parking lot. Jurors reached their verdict after just one hour of deliberation following a three-day trial, and Chatman-Jones now faces a sentence of between 45 years and life in prison.
According to the DuPage County State’s Attorney, the jury’s guilty verdict closes out a case that began on Aug. 29, 2021, when Chatman-Jones arranged to meet Davis in a parking lot on Amersale Drive to buy a gun that Davis was selling, prosecutors said. As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Chatman-Jones told Davis and another man in the vehicle that he was short on the agreed-upon amount.
What happened next escalated quickly. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Davis counted the money and said he was “short” the amount they had agreed on, and that the pair then began to “struggle” before Chatman-Jones opened fire, striking both Davis and the other occupant of the vehicle.
Victims Shot, Casings Left Behind
Davis was struck in the head and left hand, while the other man in the car was hit in the left leg, according to FOX 32 Chicago. Naperville police officers recovered two .40-caliber shell casings and more than $100 in cash from the Amersale Drive parking lot, evidence that helped investigators piece together the confrontation.
The wounded men did not stay at the scene. Aurora police later located a vehicle carrying both gunshot victims at McCoy Drive and Vaughn Road, per CBS News Chicago. Davis was rushed to a hospital but did not survive; the Daily Herald reported that he died at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
Arrest Came a Day Later
Chatman-Jones was arrested the day after the shooting in an Aurora apartment complex parking lot, the same report notes. He has remained in custody at the DuPage County jail since his arrest, and now awaits his next court appearance, scheduled for Oct. 26.
Chatman-Jones was not the only person charged in connection with Davis’s death. His co-defendant, Desire Gray, previously pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in August 2023 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with the first-degree murder and robbery charges against her dropped as part of that plea deal, the Daily Herald reported in its coverage of Gray’s sentencing. Gray was ordered to serve 85% of her sentence before becoming eligible for release and received credit for 1,331 days already spent in DuPage County jail.
Prosecutor Points to Broader Danger
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said what began as an illegal gun sale quickly turned violent, resulting in what he called a senseless loss of life. Berlin added that the murder of Coreon Davis demonstrates that guns used by violent people can cause deadly, irreversible consequences.
Age discrepancies have surfaced across coverage of the case over the years — early charging reports described Chatman-Jones as 20 or 21, while more recent reporting has identified him as 24 or 25 — though the reason for the differing ages has not been established. The case now moves toward sentencing as Chatman-Jones remains held at the DuPage County jail ahead of his October court date.
