By Gary Mays
gmays@
themonroetimes.com
FREEPORT — Nearly two years after the alleged crime, a former Monroe man accused of a murder in Freeport may finally going to trial.
Christopher Scott, 22, is accused of murder in the shooting death of 24-year-old Montrell Scott in Freeport in 2022.
Scott has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of aggravated discharge of a machine gun in the Feb. 10, 2022 incident. After numerous status hearings and continuances granted over the previous two years and several in April, he was scheduled to appear in Stephenson County Circuit Court again on the charges on Thursday, May 16.
But according to court records Scott is still appearing in court pro se, meaning he is representing himself. That may change during the Thursday hearing before Circuit Judge Glenn Schorsch. It is unclear if Scott still qualifies for or wants to be represented by a public defender. While he was represented by council initially in the previous proceedings, Scott’s then attorney filed a motion to withdraw from the case on April 18.
Scott remains in jail after an earlier petition for pre-trial release failed.
After the 2022 gunfire in Freeport, Scott, 20 at the time of the shooting, fled but was later taken into custody near Chicago Avenue and Empire Streets in the city — about 23 miles from his Monroe home, according to the Freeport Police Department’s statement. A fugitive apprehension team took him into custody.
Earlier in the investigation, police said they believed the incident was not random — and most likely gang related. It is unclear if the defendant and the victim are related, although after his arrest police said he likely was not related to him.
The case is a complex one, with more than a dozen witnesses subpoenaed to testify thus far.
According to court records, Christopher Scott was convicted in 2018 of two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm near a vehicle/school. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison and it is unclear how he was freed so soon after, only to commit another gun crime.
The victim, according to court records has a long history of arrests for misdemeanor crimes including drug possession, but no apparent felonies in Stephenson County.