Danville, Illinois, Man Convicted of Carjacking Resulting in Death and Murder

URBANA, Ill. - A federal jury returned five guilty verdicts on August 7, 2024, against Kevin Marshall, 34, of Danville, Illinois, for carjacking and murdering Daniel Walter, a 28-year-old man from rural Indiana, for the possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, carrying firearms during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, and the possession of firearms by a convicted felon. Sentencing for Marshall has been scheduled on December 9, 2024, at the U.S. Courthouse in Urbana, Illinois.

Over seven days of testimony, the government presented evidence to establish that on April 25, 2020, Marshall was riding with Walter and Marshall's girlfriend to an address in the 1600 block of Ray Street in Danville. Once there, Marshall told Walter to get out of the truck because he wanted to talk. Walter complied, and once outside, Marshall shot Walter four times and left him outside of a detached garage. Marshall and his girlfriend started to drive away in Walter's Ford F-150 before Marshall ordered her to stop the truck. He then returned to Walter and shot him five more times, taking his phone and other identification. Walter was discovered several hours later but was not identified until the following day during the autopsy. Shell casings recovered at the scene were later matched to a Taurus 9mm handgun by Illinois State Police forensic specialists. The evidence showed that Marshall and his girlfriend took Walter's truck to Belvidere, Illinois, the day after Walter's murder. The truck broke down and Marshall abandoned it in Belvidere on April 29, 2020, where it was recovered by the Belvidere Police Department that day.

On August 18, 2020, Marshall and his girlfriend were arrested during a traffic stop at a Casey's gas station in Danville. Marshall possessed the Taurus 9mm handgun used to murder Daniel Walter and a Colt .45 at the time of his arrest. Marshall also had several dozen methamphetamine pills in a black fanny pack with the Colt .45. The evidence at trial showed that the methamphetamine pills were all that remained after Marshall sold most of the 1000 that he had obtained earlier that summer. Marshall obtained the Colt .45 at the same time as the 1000 pills so he could distance himself from Walter's murder weapon by having his girlfriend carry the gun for him. As Danville Police Department officers and members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force approached the car to arrest him, Marshall tried to put all the guns and drugs at the feet of his girlfriend, who was in the backseat at the time.

Additional evidence presented at trial showed that, while in pretrial custody, Marshall manipulated his girlfriend into writing three separate letters to law enforcement falsely claiming that the guns and drugs belonged to her, and that she knew nothing of Walter's murder. Evidence of the attempted obstruction was presented to the jury during the trial, including through recorded calls where Marshall arranged to have the false letters sent to his attorneys.

Marshall remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, where he has been since his arrest in 2021. At sentencing, Marshall faces statutory penalties of up to life imprisonment for the carjacking resulting in death and murder convictions.

The case investigation was conducted by the Danville Police Department; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office; the Illinois State Police; the Belvidere Police Department; the U.S. Marshals Service; the Vermilion County Sheriff's Office; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bryan D. Freres and Eugene L. Miller represented the government at trial in coordination and cooperation with Vermilion County State's Attorney Jacqueline Lacy.