A woman who plotted with her longtime boyfriend and her daughter’s boyfriend to rob and kill her drug dealer was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to her part in the 2009 slaying, according to prosecutors and court records.
Willetta Ellis, 47, pled guilty to murder in the killing of Michael Dabney, 33, who was found dead in a hallway of an abandoned building in Chicago on March 11, 2009, according to prosecutors.
Police did not release any details of the killing at the time, except to say that Dabney was found about 10:15 a.m. March 11 in the 3200 block of West Walnut Street and detectives were conducting a homicide investigation. But Ellis admitted to investigators that she and her longtime boyfriend, Otto Lee, 50, and her daughter’s boyfriend, Darvell Williams, 27 — who also are charged with murder — plotted to kill Dabney, said Cook County state’s attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.
Ellis regularly bought drugs from Dabney on credit, paying off her debts to him usually around the first of each month when her daughter received her Social Security disability payment, prosecutors said. Ellis and Lee came up with a scheme to rob Dabney, and recruited Williams, the father of Ellis’ daughter’s child, to shoot Dabney, prosecutors said.
Ellis, Lee and Williams arranged to drive with Dabney to the bank where Ellis’ daughter had her bank account, and Lee gave Williams a gun, prosecutors said. About 8:30 a.m. Feb. 27, 2009, Dabney went to the home in the 1500 block of West 15th Street where the three lived, to go with them to pick up the money Ellis owed him, prosecutors said.
The four got into a car and started toward the bank, and after a while, Williams, who was in the passenger seat behind Dabney, shot him in the head, prosecutors said. When Dabney turned toward Williams, Williams shot him again, this time in the chest, prosecutors said.
After the shooting, Ellis got out of the car and walked home, while Lee dumped Dabney’s body in a stairwell of the abandoned building, prosecutors said.
Ellis, Lee and Williams were arrested soon after Dabney’s body was found — court records show they were charged on March 13, 2009 — and in a videotaped statement, Ellis admitted her role in the slaying, prosecutors said.
Ellis was sentenced Thursday afternoon by Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas Joseph Hennelly. Lee and Williams are scheduled for a status hearing March 25, according to prosecutors and court records.