A Kenosha man arrested in Texas has made his first court appearance in Racine County, where he and a Chicago man are charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting death of a Racine man last summer. Deangelo V. Herron, 41, of Kenosha appeared by video on Wednesday, November 11, in the July 25, 2026, shooting death of Deonte Stokes, 39, in the 2700 block of Wright Avenue in Racine, Wisconsin, according to Racine County court reporting. Lamar Payne Jr., 38, of Chicago faces the same charge in a companion case.

Source: Racine County court reporting — The Bug

According to the criminal complaint against Herron, Payne fired the single shot that killed Stokes while Herron kept Stokes talking beside his car. That is the prosecution's allegation as set out in the complaint; neither man has been convicted, and both are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Prosecutors say a dispute over $10,000 led to the July 25 killing, according to the court reporting on the complaint. The complaint was filed on October 27, the day before both men were arrested in different states.

Tracked down in Texas and Iowa

The U.S. Marshals Task Force, working with local agencies, arrested both men on October 28, according to Racine police as reported in the court coverage. Herron was arrested in Dallas, Texas. Payne was arrested in Dubuque, Iowa — Radio Dubuque reported he was found living at a home in the 9500 block of Swiss Valley Road near Peosta and was held in the Dubuque County Jail pending extradition to Wisconsin.

Source: Radio Dubuque

Herron was returned to Racine County on November 11 on a $500,000 warrant and made his first appearance the same day. Payne, whose case moved first, received his bond on November 5 after his return to Wisconsin.

Court Commissioner Sally Hoelzel found probable cause in Herron's case on November 11 and set bond. Each man is now being held on a $1 million cash bond. Both are ordered to have no contact with Stokes's family, home or property, no contact with each other, and no weapons, court records show.

A Class A felony with a mandatory life sentence

Each man is charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide as a party to a crime, with use of a dangerous weapon, according to court records. In Wisconsin that is a Class A felony carrying a mandatory life sentence on conviction. Herron's case is 2026CF001310 and Payne's is 2026CF001311. Both cases are assigned to Racine County Circuit Judge Jessica Lynott, Branch 3.

“Party to a crime” is the Wisconsin doctrine under which a person who aids, advises or participates in a planned offence can be charged with the offence itself, even if prosecutors allege someone else fired the shot. It is why Herron faces the same homicide count as Payne even though the complaint attributes the single shot to Payne — an allegation the defence has yet to test in court.

What happens next is set for 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 18, when both men have preliminary hearings in the lower-level hearing room at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, before Court Commissioner Sally Hoelzel, according to court records. At those hearings the prosecution must show probable cause to hold each man for trial.

For Racine, the case closes a three-and-a-half-month gap between a summer shooting on Wright Avenue and arrests a thousand miles apart — and opens the court phase, where the $10,000-dispute allegation and the party-to-a-crime theory will be tested in public for the first time.