PEORIA, Ill. (WCIA) — Just days before the two-year anniversary of Champaign Police Officer Christopher Oberheim’s death, a woman from Normal pleaded guilty to two crimes related to the purchase of the murder weapon.
Regina Lewis, 28, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to two counts of conspiracy: one of illegally purchasing and transferring a firearm and one of engaging in misleading conduct. In doing so, she admitted before the judge to conspiring with co-defendant Ashantae Corruthers and Oberheim’s killer Darion Lafayette to buy and give him a gun that he could not legally purchase or own due to being a convicted felon.
As part of that conspiracy, Corruthers is accused of acting under Lafayette and Lewis’ direction when she bought a Glock 48 pistol and ammunition in Indianapolis on Nov. 17, 2020. She is said to have certified to the ATF that she was the actual buyer; in reality, prosecutors allege, Corruthers gave the gun and ammunition to Lafayette.
Lewis also admitted that she and Corruthers conspired to cover up the illegal transfer by reporting the gun stolen. Prosecutors said Corruthers filed a report with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on April 26, 2021, claiming the gun had been stolen the previous month.
Three weeks after Corruthers supposedly made this report, on May 19, 2021, Lafayette shot Oberheim and his partner Jeffrey Creel with the gun when the two officers responded to a domestic disturbance. Oberheim and Lafayette both died in exchange of gunfire while Creel survived.
Lewis further admitted that after Oberheim and Lafayette’s deaths, she and Corruthers continued to cover up their involvement by agreeing to lie to investigating authorities. When the ATF traced Lafayette’s gun back to Corruthers, she is accused of repeating to an agent the false claim that she had purchased the gun for herself and that it had been stolen. Corruthers is also said to have told the agent that she didn’t know Lafayette.
Lewis remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending sentencing, which has been scheduled for Oct. 2 in Urbana. She faces up to 25 years in prison for the two crimes combined.
Corruthers, meanwhile, is scheduled to go on trial June 27 in Urbana.