Lower than a 12 months after strolling free from a life sentence for a 2003 double homicide — a launch that got here after a scandal-plagued prosecutor championed his resentencing — Dante Brown is again in jail, accused of taking pictures a safety guard within the neck final weekend throughout a Close to West Facet.
Brown, 40, was freed in August 2024 when Decide Michael McHale lower his life time period to twenty years, crediting him with time served. His resentencing was pushed by then–Conviction Assessment Unit chief Michelle Mbekeani, whom McHale later accused of mendacity in court docket about her ties to a non-public firm that linked inmates searching for resentencings with protection attorneys.
McHale discovered her in a “blatantly apparent battle of curiosity,” barred her from his courtroom for all times, and criticized then–State’s Legal professional Kim Foxx for permitting her to stay on the case. Mbekeani resigned in June final 12 months.
Now, underneath new State’s Legal professional Eileen O’Neill Burke, the identical workplace that fought to set Brown free is attempting to ship him again to jail.
One other Taking pictures
At 1:07 a.m., on August 3, a 54-year-old armed safety guard had simply left work within the 2000 block of West Jackson Boulevard when Brown approached sporting a surgical masks and hoodie, prosecutors stated in a detention petition. The guard was putting gadgets into his automobile when Brown allegedly pulled a gun, ordered him at hand over his weapon, and threatened to “blow [his] head off,” the petition stated.
The sufferer tried to de-escalate, however prosecutors say Brown fired, hanging the guard within the neck. Almost your entire incident was recorded on video, exhibiting the lads exchanging gunfire whereas bobbing and weaving across the guard’s automobile. Brown fell, bought up, and ran away.
Prosecutors stated the guard and a co-worker bought into the sufferer’s car and chased Brown. They confronted him in a car parking zone down the road, the place a second shootout unfolded.
Brown escaped over a fence, touchdown within the yard of an off-duty Chicago police officer. That officer chased him down and detained him. Prosecutors say a .25-caliber handgun fell from Brown’s waistband because the police raised him to his ft.
The guard was hospitalized with a number of accidents, receiving stitches and a neck brace.
He’s charged with aggravated battery by discharging a firearm, discharging a firearm throughout an tried armed theft, and possession of a firearm by a repeat felon. Decide Susana Ortiz on Monday granted prosecutors’ request to detain Brown pending trial within the new case. The Illinois Division of Corrections has moved to revoke his parole within the 2003 homicide case.
From Life With out Parole to Freedom
Brown was convicted of a double homicide dedicated when he was 19. His attorneys argued his confession was coerced, that he performed a minor function within the killings, and that obligatory life sentences for “rising adults” are actually unconstitutional with out contemplating mitigating elements.
McHale resentenced him to twenty years, sufficient for speedy launch, and ordered three years of supervised launch, plus lifetime registration as a violent offender.
The resentencing gained nationwide consideration after Mbekeani’s ties to an organization known as Interval that matched inmates with protection attorneys had been uncovered. McHale accused her of being “duplicitous, incomplete, evasive, and untruthful” when questioned concerning the enterprise and stated her conduct created an “look that one thing unethical is happening” in Brown’s case.
In scathing remarks, McHale stated Foxx “set [Mbekeani] up for failure” by permitting her to remain on the case, calling it “surprising” that she didn’t see the battle coming.
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