Deandre Williams, 23, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the fatal shooting of Romell Campbell outside a Milwaukee liquor store. Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide in June, according to court records. He will serve 10 years of extended supervision after his prison term and receive credit for nearly two years already served.
Campbell, 41, was shot near 23rd and Capitol on September 23, 2024. Milwaukee police found him conscious; court records say he told an officer he had been shot in the back. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead less than an hour later, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee.
The criminal complaint says Williams had spoken inside the store about a 51-year-old man killing his brother and said his brother was all he had left. Prosecutors said Williams later struck Campbell and shot him near the store’s entrance. Investigators linked those remarks to an earlier fatal shooting that day.
The Earlier Shooting
Earlier that afternoon, around 3:30 p.m. near 14th and West Locust Streets, 17-year-old Javontae Davis was fatally shot inside a vehicle. According to CBS 58, the occupants engaged a 51-year-old man, who fired at their vehicle during an earlier gunfire incident. Police arrested two other occupants of Davis’s vehicle, a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man; investigators later determined the bystander had acted in self-defense.
Davis’s death was Milwaukee’s 100th recorded homicide of 2024, according to the National Gun Violence Memorial. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office told FOX6 that Williams’s comments to Campbell referred to Davis’s death. Williams was like a cousin to Davis.
FOX6 reported that an associate of Davis identified the person in a liquor-store surveillance photo as “Deandre,” who was “like a cousin” to Davis. A witness identified Williams from a photo the next day. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office charged Williams with first-degree reckless homicide in September 2024.
Arrest After Months at Large
Williams remained at large for months and was named one of Wisconsin’s Most Wanted. The U.S. Marshals Service said he surrendered in February 2025 after seeing himself featured on the broadcast. The 2024 Operation Big Top cleared 437 active warrants and resulted in 260 arrests, Hoodline previously reported.
Williams initially pleaded not guilty, FOX6 News Milwaukee reported. He later pleaded guilty to the homicide charge in June, according to court records.
Jailhouse Plot Added Weight to Sentencing
While awaiting trial at the Milwaukee County Jail, Williams's legal troubles multiplied. The station's report detailed how, in July 2025, he was charged with four additional counts of solicitation of first-degree intentional homicide after allegedly trying to recruit a cellmate to kill 10 witnesses and character contacts, reportedly using the phrase no face no case. Court filings indicated Williams provided his cellmate with names and addresses before that cellmate reported the plan to an attorney.
The jailhouse allegations added to the legal troubles Williams faced while awaiting trial. His central charge was first-degree reckless homicide.
The sentence follows a case investigated by the Milwaukee Police Department and prosecuted by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. Court records show Williams was convicted of first-degree reckless homicide.
Campbell’s death is part of Milwaukee’s wider focus on gun violence. The Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission and local violence-prevention groups have pushed for targeted hot-spot interventions on the city’s north side, Hoodline has reported.
Milwaukee’s Homicide Totals
Milwaukee recorded 132 homicides in 2024, down from 172 in 2023, according to MPD data reported by Spectrum News 1. Hoodline reported 142 homicides in 2025, an increase from the prior year. These are overall annual totals; the figures cited here do not provide a firearm-specific breakdown or neighborhood-by-neighborhood counts.
