MONROE — Four years after shots rang out on a cold Freeport Street, a former Monroe resident was sentenced to 50 years in prison in Stephenson County Circuit Court.

Christopher D. Scott, now 24, was accused of the Feb. 10, 2022 of killing of 24-year-old Montrell Scott near Galena Avenue and Dexter Street. Scott was convicted by a jury in March. He was sentenced last week.

As a result, he was 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. The charges indicate he may have either had an automatic weapon or perhaps a type of “switch” to convert a handgun to automatic.

The case was delayed for years by status hearings and other issues, with numerous subpoenas and changes in the defendant’s attorney representation — with the defendant even trying to defend himself at one point.

Earlier in the investigation, police said they believed the incident was not random — and most likely gang related.

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 history of arrests for misdemeanor crimes including drug possession, but no apparent felonies in Stephenson County.

According to published reports, Christopher Scott is scheduled to appear in Stephenson County Circuit Court next month for a hearing on a motion to reduce his sentence. After the 2022 gunfire in Freeport, Scott fled but was later taken into custody near Chicago Avenue and Empire Streets in the city — about 23 miles from his former Monroe home. A fugitive apprehension team took him into custody.