Champaign man charged with attempted murder in hotel robbery

URBANA — A Champaign man stands charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting and robbing a man in a Champaign hotel room earlier this year.

Champaign County Judge Brett Olmstead ruled on Wednesday that Kejuan D. McFarland, 26, must await his pending trial in jail after he was charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and armed robbery.

Champaign police were called to the Days Inn, 914 W. Bloomington Road, around 11:30 p.m. June 6 for a reported shooting, Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz said. At the scene, officers found a man who’d been shot in the abdomen and had him brought to a local hospital.

The man who rented the room where the shooting happened told police that he and his friend, the victim, had been hanging out together when they were joined by two women and another man. The group eventually all left the hotel room as some of them went to a nearby liquor store.

The two women later told police that the third man they had brought along was McFarland; the man who rented the room and the victim reported that they didn’t know McFarland. In any case, the two friends soon returned to the room with alcohol they bought from the store.

One of the two women said she was then outside the hotel talking on the phone when she noticed McFarland outside ripping a hoodie to help cover his face, according to Rietz. She then heard gunshots from inside the hotel and saw McFarland run out from the building.

Interviewed after surgery, the victim told police that a man he could not identify had entered the room with his face covered, stolen a backpack of cash, pointed a gun at the victim’s head and pulled the trigger. When the gun didn’t fire, the man re-racked it and shot him in the chest.

The woman who reportedly saw McFarland outside the hotel after the shooting also told police he texted her and told her to leave, otherwise she’d be next, Rietz said. Surveillance video allegedly showed McFarland and the four other individuals in the area of the hotel before the shooting.

Police already had an open arrest warrant out for McFarland on an unrelated case. He was arrested Sunday after Urbana police conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle he was in.

Petitioning for McFarland to be held in jail, Rietz emphasized that the two women who knew McFarland identified him as at the hotel that night, surveillance footage captured him in the area, and an eyewitness placed him going into the room of the shooting and coming out of it.

Rietz also argued that McFarland would not comply with conditions of release as he was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison after violating probation for a 2016 robbery conviction involving a BB gun, and pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse in another 2017 case.

Arguing for McFarland to be released on pretrial conditions, Public Defender Chris Tichenor noted that no witness saw his client with a gun, another woman said she was elsewhere with McFarland that night, and police never located a gun or stolen property on McFarland.

McFarland faces six to 30 years in prison if convicted of any of the Class X felony counts. He is set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing in October.