Aspiring Chicago Rapper Sentenced To 99 Years In Jail For Mother’s Murder-For-Hire Killing (2024)

An aspiring Chicago rapper was sentenced to 99 years in prison on Jan. 31 for hiring a hit man to kill his mom before going on a spending spree with money from her savings account.

Qaw’mane Wilson, who goes by the name Young QC, promised Eugene Spencer $3,500 to murder Yolanda Holmes, according to Cook County prosecutors.

On the morning of Sept. 2, 2012, Holmes was asleep next to her boyfriend, Curtis Wyatt, in her Uptown apartment. Spencer broke in and shot Wilson’s 45-year-old mother in the temple and stabbed her repeatedly. Wyatt chased Spencer from the residence, and he was later able to pick out Holmes’ killer from a police lineup.

Cellphone records show the victim’s son, Wilson, was in touch with Spencer and the hit man’s getaway driver, Loriana Johnson, “before, during and after the murder,” Assistant State's Attorney Maura White said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Spencer later told police he ultimately got just $70 of the $3,500 Wilson promised him to slay the Nappy Headz beauty salon owner.

According to police, after his mom’s death, Wilson accessed around $90,000 from her savings account and collected additional money from two life insurance policies. DNAinfo Chicago reported he spent the cash on everything from guns, gold chains and Air Jordan shoes to a new Mustang, marijuana and puppies worth $1,500.

Wilson once flaunted his new wealth by withdrawing cash from an ATM, tossing the bills into a crowd of his “fans” and posting the video on his YouTube channel, the Chicago Sun-Times noted.

Detectives alleged Wilson, Holmes’ only child, confessed his mom’s death “was supposed to be a robbery” for “financial gain” but he never wanted her to die, according to the newspaper.

“I’m floored because, out of everyone, I thought he is the last one who would do it to his own mother,” Holmes’s close friend and former employee, Ayonna Anderson, told the Chicago Tribune in 2013.

Anderson, who watched beauty “shop baby” Wilson grow up, added: “Her son she took care of ... he could've gotten anything from her. It's so heartbreaking. She was trying to build a future for her son to have. But I guess money is the root of all evil.”

Last March, Wilson, 30, and Spencer, 28, were both convicted of first-degree murder, attempted murder and home invasion. Last Friday, Wilson was sentenced to 99 years in prison and Spencer got 100 years behind bars.

According to prison records, getaway driver Johnson, 29, previously received a sentence of 14 years behind bars for the part she played in the plot.

“The word is ‘matricide,’ meaning murder of one’s own mother,” Cook County Judge Stanley Sacks said during Wilson’s sentencing, the Sun-Times reported. “Whatever he wanted his mother gave to him. A car. A job. One could say he was spoiled. She gave Qaw’mane life, and it was his choice to take it away from her.”

When asked at the hearing if he had any comments, Wilson, who has his mom’s name tattooed on his shoulder, told the court: “I just want to say, nobody loved my mother more than me. She was all I had. That’s it.”

In a statement to the Washington Post, defense attorney, Stephen L. Richards, said Wilson plans to appeal the case.