Quincy man sentenced to 18 years in prison in plea deal for September stabbing in Blessing Hospital parking lot

QUINCY — It started with a door ding.

Dylan Test, 20, was sentenced to serve 18 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections on Monday morning by Judge Tad Brenner in Adams County Circuit Court. He waived his right to a jury trial on Feb. 27 and entered a guilty plea on April 30.

Test agreed to enter a guilty plea to attempted murder, a Class X felony that typically would have a sentencing range of six to 30 years. However, Test’s sentence was capped at 20 years. Charges of armed violence, a Class X felony, and aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony, were dismissed as part of the negotiation. Test must serve 85 percent of his sentence under the state’s truth in sentencing law.

Assistant State’s Attorney Todd Eyler said during Monday’s hearing that the altercation which led to Test stabbing Tanner Bowen could be characterized as “completely unnecessary.”

“This whole thing starts because somebody parked too close to somebody, and there’s a door ding,” Eyler said. “An argument ensues, and we have somebody who ends up getting stabbed and is seriously injured, and in fact is dead at one point until he is brought back (to life) by emergency personnel.”

Test and Heaton Brothers were taking a friend to Blessing Hospital, 1005 Broadway, at approximately 11:15 p.m. Sept. 15.

“When they get out of their car, they door ding a truck and an argument ensues,” Eyler said after the sentencing. “The co-defendant gets into a physical altercation.”

Test was walking his friend into Blessing Hospital but heard the commotion in the parking lot and raced back to help Brothers.

“At that point, his buddy’s on the ground with (Bowen), and Test tackles the other guy to get them off of his buddy,” Eyler continued. “Then they stand up. Then the (Quincy Police Department) report says he pulls out the knife, he charges and he stabs (Bowen). Yes, he was protecting his buddy, but he also charged at the other guy who made no lunges or attempts to make any physical contact with Test.”

Eyler asked for Test to be sentenced to 20 years.

“If this doesn’t happen where it happens — in the parking lot of Blessing Hospital — I don’t think that individual is alive today, and that is something that we cannot overlook,” Eyler said.

Eyler referred to statements Test made to law enforcement in the QPD report. 

“At one point he told the police, ‘I got involved in some sh*t I shouldn’t have,’” Eyler said. “At another point, he said, ‘It was ignorant as hell.’ At another point, he says, ‘I don’t even know who the hell he was.’ Test said the whole incident started because somebody was drunk, ‘that person popped off and there was sh*t being talked.’ He then summed it up by saying, ‘It was all stupid.’

“That’s the understatement of the year.”

Eyler said the Quincy community must learn that actions have consequences. 

“If we don’t require those consequences, then (the criminal justice system is) sending the wrong message,” he said. “This case is about punishment. Maybe it can be, in part, about rehabilitation. That’s entirely up to Dylan Test and what he does moving forward. … We all make mistakes. It’s what we learn from those mistakes, and how we move forward, that determines who we are.

“But in this case, we cannot overlook the message that needs to be sent. This kind of nonsense is not tolerable, and we will not allow that in our community.”

Test’s attorney, Matthew Radefeld, asked for a sentence of 12 years. He noted Test’s “tumultuous childhood” and no criminal history. He said Test also had been stabbed four months earlier and had been declared dead at one point.

“Now what does that do to the mind of a 19-year-old who is suffering from situations like PTSD, feeling as vulnerable as he was feeling?” Radefeld said. 

Radefeld said Test was cooperative with police. He said he was trying to protect a friend when he “made the worst mistake of his life.”

“(Test) told (police) that it was like he had stepped out of his body and was more or less looking at himself,” he said.

Radefeld said he thought a 12-year sentence “would definitely send a message to the people in this community that this type of behavior won’t be tolerated. It doesn’t need a sentence of 20 years to hit him across the head with a sledgehammer to prove that point.”

Test said during his statement of allocution that the biggest lessons learned in life are through mistakes. He made the mistake of not controlling his emotions.

“Not being able to sleep at night, I think about how my actions caused the innocent family not to be able to sleep as well,” Test said. “(I’m) not wanting to go into further details about the incident but wanting to say that my heart beats remorse and sorrow for the pain and trauma (I) have caused for the victim and his family.

“I’ve decided to take full responsibility and accountability for everything that happened that tragic day. … I’m truly sorry, Tanner, for what I did (and) for the pain, trauma and damage I have caused for you and your family.”

Brenner said he considered Test’s age and lack of criminal history in his sentence. However, he said statements provided by Test and Brothers on the night of the incident were contradicted by the video footage recorded of the stabbing. He also questioned why Test’s own stabbing incident wasn’t more of a factor.

“The court has to be a bit perplexed,” Brenner said. “That should be a wake-up call. What do you do? You didn’t change the people you were hanging out with. You did not change your lifestyle. Instead, what you did was you started carrying a knife. Four months later, you use that knife, almost taking someone’s life.”

Test was given credit for 304 days served in the Adams County Jail.

Brenner also sentenced Brothers in April to nine years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Brothers pled guilty on March 11 to attempted armed violence.