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Getaway Driver Kevin Edwards Pleads Guilty, Gets 25 Years For Role In Execution-Style Slaying Of Tyshawn Lee

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The accused getaway driver in the execution-style murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee has pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for a 25-year sentence.

Kevin Edwards, 26, had faced up to 60 years in prison if convicted at trial, which was scheduled to begin next week.

Police have called Tyshawn's murder in 2015 a "targeted assassination."

Tyshawn Lee
Tyshawn Lee, 9, was fatally shot in the Gresham neighborhood. (Courtesy: Karla Lee)

Cook County prosecutors have said Edwards, 31-year-old Corey Morgan, and 25-year-old Dwright Boone-Doty targeted Tyshawn in retaliation for the gang-killing of Morgan's brother, Tracy Morgan, who was gunned down three weeks before Tyshawn was slain. Tyshawn's father was a member of a rival gang suspected of shooting Morgan's brother.

Police and prosecutors said both shootings stemmed from an ongoing gang war between the Terror Dome faction of the Black P-Stones and the Killa Ward faction of the Gangster Disciples.

Morgan, Boone-Doty and Edwards allegedly spotted Tyshawn playing basketball at Dawes Park at 80th and Damen on Nov. 2, 2015. Morgan and Edwards drove off in an SUV while Boone-Doty stayed behind.

Doty, Dwright
Dwright Boone-Doty (Credit: Chicago Police)

Tyshawn put down his basketball and began playing on the swings at the park, and Boone-Doty walked up to him and offered to take him to the store and buy him anything he wanted, prosecutors said. Boone-Doty then allegedly lured Tyshawn into a nearby alley, where he allegedly shot Tyshawn multiple times at close range.

Edwards then drove Morgan and Boone-Doty away from the scene.

Kevin Edwards
Kevin Edwards was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder in the death of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee. Prosecutors have said he was the getaway driver for accused gunman Dwright Boone-Doty and co-defendant Corey Morgan. (Source: Cook County Sheriff)

Morgan and Boone-Doty were arrested about two weeks after Tyshawn was killed. Edwards was arrested six months later in downstate Danville.

Authorities have said Boone-Doty admitted his role in Tyshawn's death and said when he shot the boy, he "seen that bitch go in his head."

Edwards had been scheduled to go on trial next week alongside Morgan and Boone-Doty and reportedly had rejected other plea deals. His 25-year sentence in the case is 5 years longer than the mandatory minimum for first-degree murder.

With credit for time served while awaiting trial, Edwards will be released in about 22 years.

Edwards declined to speak on his own behalf before Judge Thaddeus Wilson imposed the sentence.

Jury selection for the trial of Boone-Doty and Morgan is scheduled for next week.

Corey Morgan
(Credit: Cook County Sheriff)

Last month, Corey Morgan's brother, 32-year-old Anthony Morgan, was sentenced to four years in prison on federal gun trafficking charges for allegedly supplying the murder weapon in Tyshawn's slaying.

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