Michael Wallace pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2011 killing of Caleb Witty in Decatur.

Monday's plea is the conviction on the first-degree murder count Wallace admitted. It is not the prison term. The firearm enhancement is off, and the agreement caps whatever the judge imposes in December at 40 years. Gipson's Thursday plea, as WAND reported it, is a different count: second-degree murder, with probation still available and a prison range of four to 20 years if the judge does not choose probation. Nov. 5 is the sentencing date in that account, not a sentence already entered.

WAND reporter Caryn Eisert wrote Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, that Michael Wallace pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2011 killing of Caleb Witty, and that the plea ended the need for a jury trial. Under the agreement, WAND reported, the firearm enhancement comes off and the sentence is capped at 40 years in prison. Sentencing is set for December. Earlier Monday, WAND reported that jury selection was expected to begin that morning in Macon County. On Friday, WAND reported, Macon County State's Attorney Diane Couri and Wallace's attorney, Susan Moorehead, told the court they were ready to pick a jury. WAND also reported that Wallace turned down a final offer on Friday to plead guilty to first-degree murder with the firearm enhancement dropped, a deal WAND said would have carried 20 to 60 years. The Monday agreement uses a lower cap.

WAND reported that Decatur police said Witty, 17, was killed on the city's east side in August 2011 while protecting his younger sister during a robbery. Police said the two were walking home from the Decatur Celebration when two men approached them and demanded money, and that Witty was pistol-whipped. His sister told police that he stepped in front of her so she could run, WAND reported. Police said he was then shot multiple times at point-blank range. The sister is not named in this account. WCIA previously reported the date of the shooting as Aug. 4, 2011.

The file sat unsolved for years. WAND reported that in June 2024, then-Decatur police Chief Shane Brandel announced the arrests of Wallace and Bobby Gipson. Wallace was in Decatur when he was arrested, and Gipson was living in Tennessee, WAND reported. NewsChannel 20, in its 2024 account of those arrests, identified them as Michael Isaiah Wallace, 34, and Bobby L. Gipson, 34, both charged with first-degree murder. FOX Illinois reported Monday that Wallace entered the plea before Macon County Judge Thomas Griffith, that Griffith set sentencing for Dec. 8 at 10 a.m., that the agreement contemplates a term of 20 to 40 years, and that three additional murder counts against Wallace were dismissed. WAND's Monday story had said only that sentencing was in December and that the cap was 40 years. FOX Illinois also reported Monday that court records showed a plea agreement filed in Gipson's case in June, when he waived a jury, and that it was not clear whether the court had accepted it. The station said his next date was Nov. 5 and that the state's attorney's office had not yet answered a question about that June filing.

WAND reported Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, that Gipson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for his role in Witty's death. The station said the agreement makes him eligible for probation, and that if he is sent to prison the range is four to 20 years and the sentence is day-for-day. Sentencing is Nov. 5, WAND reported. The station said prosecutors emphasized that Gipson did not fire the gun, that his role was secondary, and that the plea is him taking responsibility for that role. Monday's WAND story said he had pleaded not guilty and that November was a routine hearing. Thursday's story is a guilty plea to a lesser count, with the prison term still unimposed. Wallace's plea remains the first-degree admission, and December is when the court imposes a sentence inside his cap. That term is not entered yet. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.