One of two men charged in September stabbing in Blessing Hospital parking lot scheduled to plea next month

QUINCY — One of two men charged in connection to a stabbing in the parking lot at Blessing Hospital is scheduled to enter a plea next month.

Dylan Test, 20, of 1530 Monroe appeared Tuesday morning in Adams County Circuit Court with attorney Matthew Radefeld before Judge Tad Brenner, according to court records. Test has been charged with attempted murder, armed violence and aggravated battery after a Sept. 15 stabbing.

Test had pled not guilty during his arraignment before Brenner on Oct. 31. However, Assistant State’s Attorney Josh Jones said he and Radefeld were close to a negotiated plea. 

Test is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 27.

Test and Heaton Brothers, 20, of 1842 Maple, each face one count of attempted murder for knowingly stabbing Tanner Bowen in the chest with a knife. If convicted of the Class X felony, each man could be sentenced to between six and 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. They must serve 85 percent of their sentence based on the truth in sentencing law.

Both men also face one count of armed violence for being armed with a switchblade longer than three inches, a Category II weapon, and committing the offense of aggravated battery by stabbing Bowen in the chest. If convicted of the Class X felony, they could be sentenced to between 10 and 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Both men also face one count of aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony. They face between two and five years in the DOC on that charge.

Brothers’ next appearance in court is scheduled on Tuesday, Jan. 23, for a status hearing.

The Quincy Police Department reported officers found a male stabbing victim in the parking lot at Blessing Hospital, 1005 Broadway, around 11:15 p.m. Sept. 15. Surveillance video from Blessing Hospital allegedly shows Test and Brothers pinning the victim between two cars and attacking the man, with Test stabbing him in the chest.

Assistant State’s Attorney Josh Jones says Brothers is charged under an “accountability theory.” The law of accountability in Illinois states that a person is legally responsible for another person’s illegal conduct if “either before or during the commission of an offense, and with the intent to promote or facilitate that commission, he or she solicits, aids, abets, agrees or attempts to aid that other person in the planning or commission of the offense.”

Both men are lodged in the Adams County Jail.