Suspect in September stabbing case at Blessing Hospital pleads not guilty during arraignment

QUINCY — A Quincy teenager charged with attempted murder pled not guilty during his arraignment Tuesday morning.

Heaton S. Brothers, 19, appeared in Adams County Circuit Court with attorney Don Heck before Judge Tad Brenner. 

Brothers and Dylan M. Test, 20, were charged Sept. 25 with attempted murder, armed violence and aggravated battery after a Sept. 15 stabbing. 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. 

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.

Brothers faces one count of attempted murder for knowingly stabbing Tanner Bowen in the chest with a knife. If convicted of the Class X felony, Brothers could be sentenced for between six and 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He must serve 85 percent of his sentence based on the truth in sentencing law.

Brothers also faces 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, he could be sentenced for between 10 and 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

He also faces one count of aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony. He faces between two and five years in the DOC on that charge, and it would be served at 50 percent based on the truth in sentencing law.

A status hearing was set for Oct. 31. Heck told Brenner he recently received “seven or eight” DVDs with videos that Brothers has not seen.

Test and Brothers were the first two arrestees held in Adams County as part of the pretrial provisions of the SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bond as a condition for pretrial release in Illinois. Judge Zachary Boren found on Sept. 25 both men constituted a threat to the community and ordered them held in the Adams County Jail.

Test, represented by Jen Kusmer of the St. Louis law firm of Frank, Juengel & Radefeld, will be arraigned on Oct. 31.