Convicted murderer given 45-years in prison for Bloomington man’s death

Anthony Grampsas (left) and Tyjuan Bruce (right), both of Decatur. (Photo courtesy: Bloomington Police)

By Heart of Illinois ABC

BLOOMINGTON – A second Decatur man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for fatally shooting a Bloomington resident during a robbery in the Twin-Cities two years ago.

Judge Scott Drazewski handed down the sentence Monday against Tyjuan Bruce. A jury in August found Bruce guilty of killing Egerton Dover, 20, in December of 2018 in the 800 block of West Jefferson Street.

Prosecutors said Bruce and Dover knew each other from high school football in Bloomington-Normal.

“You’d been Egerton’s friend, and yet you did the most heinous, immoral thing a person could do to someone,” said Dover’s mother Rhonda during the sentencing hearing.

“He had dreams of a long, productive life as a video producer and photographer that will never be realized because you violently took his life, and ruined your own,” Rhonda Dover said.

Prosecutors said Bruce and two others sought to rob Dover of a $1,000 Louis Vuitton belt and marijuana.

“The fact that you took his belt as a trophy and posted it online, as if to brag about what you’d done, sickens me and tells me how truly evil you are,” Dover’s mother said.

Suspected getaway driver Anthony Grampsas also received a 45-year prison sentence. A third suspect, Curtis Hairston Jr., was killed a month after Dover’s murder in an unrelated shooting in Decatur.

Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at [email protected]

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