QUINCY, ILL. -- Adams County State's Attorney, Jon Barnard says, "When Ian Barksdale fell to the ground, he might as well as been an infant, unable to defend himself. And the defendant finished the job."
And that defendant now will pay the price for taking another person's life.
Phillip Diaz changed his plea to guilty in the first degree murder of Ian Barksdale.
Last May, Diaz and Barksdale got into an argument at the Casino Starlight in Quincy.
Diaz was in town for his brother, Benny Smothers', college graduation.
Barksdale was a security guard at the nightclub.
After a scuffle there, the men went their separate ways.
Early in the morning, they found themselves at the Hardees restaurant at 30th and Broadway.
That's where the earlier fight re-escalated, and Diaz shot Barksdale six times.
Jon Barnard says, "When you take a step back and think about it, this guy not only ruined an event that was going to be, on that day, the best day of Benny Smothers' life, and turned it into the worst day of his life. And he dropped a grenade into a certain family's future."
Barksdale was essentially at the wrong place at the wrong time, and Jon Barnard says he had the evidence to prove it. Survelliance video shows Diaz getting the gun from the back of a cousin's car...and it shows checking into a Hannibal, Missouri hotel shortly after the murder in Quincy. The video also coincided with statements witnesses made to police.
Barnard says, "My speculation is that he was intending to punish Ian Barksdale. To hurt him. Because I also think it's reasonable to assume that when they encountered each other at Hardees, which was close as six to eight feet, he could have shot him right in the head. He could have shot him in the heart."
The first three shots went into Barksdale's thighs and foot.
Barnard says, "At that time, the evidence shows, Ian Barksdale was on the ground, helpless. And as he lay there facedown, bleeding, the defendant walks up behind him and pumps three more rounds into him."
Diaz then knowingly fired the shots into Barksdale that would eventually kill him. He didn't die immediately, but hours later at the hospital.
Barnard says, "If you look at what went on that night, lots of drinking into the late evening and early morning, people can do some very stupid, irresponsible, dangerous, criminal, lethal things. This is just another example of that."
Diaz will be sentenced in July.
Because of the guilty plea, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 45 years.
Also as part of the plea, a charge against Diaz for having a homemade shank in the Adams County Jail has been dropped.
Other people involved that night will also not face any charges for their testimony against Diaz.
Some of those were for hiding the weapon, obstructing justice, and transferring Diaz across state lines to stay at a hotel in Hannibal.
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