CHICAGO – A man who once went to prison for attempted murder is heading back to prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to the murder of a woman found dead near Goose Island in 2017.
Lamont Smith, 58, received a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to murder before Judge Michael Clancy. He will receive nearly six years of credit toward his sentence for the time he spent in jail fighting the charges.
Chicago police found his victim, 54-year-old Kimberly Duncan, dead in the 800 block of West Evergreen on July 5, 2017. Prosecutors said she was found with duct tape over her mouth and a plastic bag over her head. She had been stabbed and beaten to death, according to the medical examiner’s office.
The same day Duncan’s body was found, Smith searched online for news of a “body found in Chicago,” prosecutors said.
Detectives began looking into Smith after receiving a tip that Duncan had contacted him about possibly purchasing cocaine the day before she went missing, about two weeks before she was found dead.
An SUV was captured on video driving near where Duncan was discovered. Investigators tracked down the owner and learned that Smith had borrowed it the day Duncan died, prosecutors alleged. Detectives found Duncan’s blood in the vehicle.
He was eventually arrested on murder charges in November 2018, almost 17 months after the crime.
Court records show he received a six-year prison sentence in 1989 for attempted murder. In 2008, he was jailed for another two years for domestic violence.
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