A judge sentenced 23-year-old Keante McShan to 40 years in prison Thursday for the murder of Diego Damis, a beloved Hyde Park bartender who was stabbed to death while walking home from his overnight shift in February 2022. McShan pleaded guilty to murder on September 3, and Cook County Judge John Lyke handed down the sentence the following day.
Damis, a 41-year-old bartender at The Cove Lounge, was walking home around 5 a.m. on February 25, 2022, when McShan approached him, according to prosecutors cited by CWB Chicago. Prosecutors said McShan stabbed Damis repeatedly and took his wallet, cash and bank card before fleeing. Damis lay on the ground for more than an hour before a passerby discovered him and called for help, and he was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center after suffering multiple stab wounds to his chest, abdomen and arm.
Damis, originally from Assisi in Umbria, Italy, had lived in Chicago since 2015 before settling in Hyde Park, according to FOX 32 Chicago. Beyond his work behind the bar, he was known as a musician, painter, chess player and avid cook who routinely made Italian dishes like risotto and chicken cacciatore to share with patrons at the bar. The Cove Lounge, at 1750 East 55th Street, is a longtime neighborhood dive with a Prohibition-era mahogany bar that once counted author Kurt Vonnegut among its regulars during his time at the University of Chicago in the 1940s, according to the Scoundrel's Field Guide.
Surveillance Video and a Gas Station Purchase Led to an Arrest
According to prosecutors, McShan allegedly returned to the scene afterward to check parked car doors near the 4900 block of South Greenwood Avenue, and he used Damis' bank card to buy a box of Newport cigarettes at a gas station. Investigators used that surveillance footage to track the suspected killer to a South Side apartment building, where they learned McShan lived and was already wanted on juvenile warrants. Police arrested him outside the apartment complex, and officers recovered clothing associated with the killer, a knife, and other evidence from his apartment, including Damis' wallet, debit card and Ventra card, per prosecutors. Detectives determined that McShan's prior photographs and videos were consistent with the surveillance suspect, and he was wearing clothing matching items seen on the attacker at the time of his arrest.
Family members flew in from Italy in the days after the killing and joined Hyde Park community members for a memorial march retracing the route Damis took on his final walk home, according to footage from the CBS Chicago YouTube channel. The killing drew international attention, with Italian outlets covering the case alongside Chicago media as the community grappled with the loss of a familiar face at the neighborhood bar.
A Sentence Bound by Illinois' Truth-in-Sentencing Law
At the time of the murder, McShan had three felony cases pending in juvenile court, including two illegal gun possession cases and one armed carjacking case. His record placed him among a group tracked by CWB Chicago of people charged with a fatal or non-fatal shooting or murder in Chicago that year while already facing pending felony charges or active warrants — McShan was the eighth such case CWB Chicago identified in 2022.
Under Illinois law, first-degree murder is classified as a Class M felony carrying a standard sentencing range of 20 to 60 years, per the Illinois General Assembly's statutes, meaning McShan's 40-year term falls at the midpoint of that range. Because Illinois' truth-in-sentencing law bars anyone convicted of first-degree murder from earning good-conduct credit, McShan must serve all 40 years by law, with no possibility of early release through parole or sentence credit.
A Separate Kidnapping Case Still Pending
McShan's legal exposure isn't over. A kidnapping case against him was filed two years after his murder arrest, and that case includes other jail inmates as co-defendants, one of whom was awaiting trial in an unrelated murder at the time. McShan plans to enter a plea in that unrelated kidnapping case next week, meaning additional prison time could still be added on top of his 40-year murder sentence.
