Kent B. Quilling

ST. CLAIR COUNTY — Prosecutors on Wednesday charged an East St. Louis man with murder after an Illinois State Police trooper happened upon the victim's body in the street earlier this week. Dontez McCray, 27, was held on $1 million bail Wednesday night on the charge of first-degree murder, according to the Illinois State Police. A trooper with the Illinois State Police who was patrolling East St. Louis found 40-year-old Kent B. Quilling in the street in front of a residence about 9:15 a.m. Monday. His body was on Collinsville Road near Winstanley Avenue, about a half-mile north of St. Clair Avenue. Quilling was bleeding from the head. As the trooper pulled up, he saw a man run into a home. That man turned out to be McCray, police said. State police called in a tactical team and they surrounded the home. Four hours later, McCray was arrested, police said. St. Clair County coroner Calvin Dye Sr. said Quilling was taken to a hospital in St. Louis, where he died. McCray's criminal history in St. Clair County includes a 2020 case for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in East St. Louis and a conviction for a weapons offense from Washington Park in 2016. Quilling lived in East St. Louis.