Man who bought gun used to kill 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams avoids prison time
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An Indianapolis man has been sentenced to probation, avoiding prison time for his conviction for the illegal straw purchase of a gun found in the hands of the man charged in the 2021 murder of 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams.
Straw purchasers usually have clean criminal records, and purchase firearms for others who cannot legally obtain them.
Eric Lamar Keys Jr. pleaded guilty earlier this month to two counts of making false statements in connection with the purchase of a firearm from a licensed dealer. Both charges revolved around the purchase of a different gun than the one used to kill Jaslyn.
According to court records, Keys admitted to federal investigators that he'd bought the Glock .40-caliber handgun later used to kill Jaslyn and later sold it to someone else. He also admitted that person had given him $750 to buy the gun from an Indianapolis gun range.
The charges he pleaded guilty to, however, are related to the purchase of a Taurus G3C 9mm handgun he'd also bought from the same gun range. According to the feds, Keys bought a total of 10 similar guns from Indiana gun dealers in the span of little more than a month in February and March of 2021. He originally told federal investigators nine of the guns had been stolen, but later changed his story.
On July 7, after pleading guilty, Keys was sentenced to 2 years of probation.
According to court records, Chicago police found the Glock in the possession of one of the suspects arrested in Jaslyn's murder.
Jaslyn and her father, Jontae Adams, were sitting in an Infiniti sedan in a McDonald's drive-thru in the 3200 block of West Roosevelt Road on April 18, 2021, when three men pulled up behind them in an Audi.
Two men with hoodies covering their faces jumped out of the Audi and shot into Adams' car before getting back into the Audi. When the victims' car began to move forward again, the two men again got out of the Audi and fired into the victims' vehicle again before getting back in the car and speeding away.
Jaslyn was shot multiple times, and was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital. Her father was seriously wounded, but survived.
Three men – Marion Lewis, Demond Goudy, and Devontay Anderson – have been charged with murder and attempted murder in the shooting. Prosecutors have said Goudy and Anderson were the two gunmen who opened fire on the car while Lewis waited in the Audi.
According to federal court records, when one of those men was arrested, he was carrying multiple guns, including the one that was used to kill Jaslyn. Keys had bought it 48 days earlier, and later sold it to someone he identified as "D." Court records do not indicate if that person was one of the three charged with killing Jaslyn, or if the gun changed hands again after that.
