2023 Thanksgiving homicide, Milwaukee man pleads guilty

Elijah Dent

A Milwaukee man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to killing a teen in a Thanksgiving 2023 shooting.

What we know

Elijah Dent, 19, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the death of 17-year-old Al'Jevon Wilkins. He pleaded not guilty to the crime in December 2023.

What's next

Dent is scheduled to be sentenced in February. The conviction carries a sentence of life in prison.

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The backstory

The shooting happened shortly before 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning near 24th and Wells. According to a criminal complaint, a female 911 caller became "hysterical, cries, and hyperventilates" as a male voice said "you don't have to tell nobody I did that" in the background.

The first two officers to arrive found Wilkins on a futon with a gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy determined he suffered two gunshot wounds to the head "fired at close range."

Police scene near 24th and Wells

Detectives spoke to a resident of the apartment where Wilkins was found dead. The resident said the female who called 911 was his girlfriend's sister, and the female was asleep on his futon with someone else that morning. The resident said he left with another person to go to a corner store that morning, leaving the door unlocked, and returned to find the female crying in the doorway and the person she was with bleeding on the futon.

The female who called 911 gave multiple statements to investigators. Per the complaint, she said she was asleep with Wilkins, who she "considered to be her boyfriend," on the futon when she awoke to find a "subject in black standing over them." She said that person, who she identified as her ex-boyfriend Dent, then shot Wilkins and pointed the gun at her with a "crazy look on his face."

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The complaint states the female got up and called 911. While she was on the phone, she said Dent "cocked his gun back and put the gun to his own head," asking something to the effect of if she was going to "tell on him." He ran out of the apartment before police arrived.

Dent was arrested the next day at an apartment near Teutonia and Custer; police found him hiding in a closet. 

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