A Chicago man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering the mother of his children while he was on bail for gun charges.
Edward Roscoe, 33, pleaded guilty on Monday to fatally shooting 30-year-old Jessica Johnson inside her SUV on April 25, 2021, and to possessing a firearm in the earlier case. Judge Joanne Rosado sentenced him to 27 years for the murder and a consecutive three years for the gun charge.
Johnson was driving with Roscoe in her passenger seat when the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection system alerted police to shots fired in the 500 block of East 103rd Street around 10:20 p.m.
Officers found Johnson with multiple gunshot wounds, slumped in the driver’s seat. Five shell casings were inside the vehicle. Surveillance footage showed Roscoe getting out of the passenger seat and running from the scene, prosecutors said.
About an hour later, Roscoe returned to the Gary, Indiana, home he shared with Johnson and another couple. Prosecutors said he admitted to the couple that he shot Johnson after an argument. The couple, frightened by his demeanor, packed their children and left. They later called 911 after seeing news reports of the shooting.
Investigators later found a black “No F*cks Given” baseball cap in a dumpster near the murder scene, prosecutors said. Hours earlier, Roscoe had posted a photo of himself on Facebook wearing the same hat.
Roscoe fled to Texas, where he was arrested months later and extradited to Chicago.
Roscoe was no stranger to gun cases. In 2015, he served a year for reckless discharge of a firearm. In October 2020, Chicago police allegedly found a loaded handgun under the driver’s seat of his car during a traffic stop. That weapon had been reported stolen in Indiana just ten days earlier.
Prosecutors also revealed a disturbing detail: four months before killing Johnson, Roscoe dropped their infant son, killing him. Indiana officials investigated the death, but Roscoe was not criminally charged.
By law, Roscoe must serve 100 percent of the murder term and half of the three-year sentence.
