CHICAGO — Even in a state the place most jail sentences are routinely lower in half, Damajae Mitchell’s scenario is an eye-opener.
Mitchell, 20, pleaded responsible late final month to carjacking and making an attempt to rob a 69-year-old girl on the Northwest Facet. When he dedicated the crime, officers stated, he had one other carjacking case pending in juvenile court docket.
After Mitchell entered his plea on June 26, Decide Timothy Joyce sentenced him to 9 years in jail for vehicular hijacking of a senior citizen with a concurrent three-year sentence for aggravated battery of a peace officer.
In Illinois, these 9 years would sometimes be lowered to 4½. However Mitchell went house with out spending a single night time in jail. We had been intrigued. How did that occur?
The crime
The carjacking occurred on St. Patrick’s Day 2022 within the 7100 block of West Summerdale. Prosecutors stated a 69-year-old girl was warming up her automotive when Mitchell and one other man appeared outdoors her driver’s door round 6:10 a.m. Mitchell allegedly ordered her out at gunpoint.
Understandably scared, the girl exited the automotive, ran to a close-by house, and commenced ringing the doorbell for assist.
Mitchell and the opposite man drove a brief distance within the girl’s Chevy Equinox, however the automotive stopped. Mitchell received out to confront the girl on the house the place she was making an attempt to get assist.
The house’s Ring doorbell was recording as Mitchell held a gun to the girl and demanded her key fob, prosecutors claimed. She couldn’t discover it. Mitchell allegedly returned to the automotive and drove away.
Police tracked the automotive through GPS and arrested Mitchell after he crashed it right into a viaduct column. He put the automotive in reverse as cops approached on foot, smashed into a number of parked vehicles, then received out and ran throughout the highest of a number of autos earlier than police caught him, prosecutors stated.
Officers allegedly discovered an unloaded handgun on the rear driver’s facet floorboard.
The sentence
So, how did Mitchell go from a nine-year jail sentence to serving no time in jail? We requested round. After all, it was lower in half routinely by state legislation. Then he received credit score for 833 days, simply over two years, spent within the county jail. That leaves a bit of greater than two years unaccounted for.
First, we checked with the Illinois Division of Corrections. Its web site confirmed Mitchell arriving at Stateville Correctional Heart on June 27, the day after he was sentenced, and going house the identical day.
An IDOC spokesperson confirmed the web site info was correct: “The sentencing order awarded him 833 days of jail credit score for time served and a further 794 days of county program sentence credit score.”
How did Mitchell earn 794 days of extra credit score whereas in jail? Principally by going to highschool.
“Whereas in custody at [the Cook County jail], Mr. Mitchell was enrolled in York Various Excessive Faculty for a complete of 752 days and was employed as an [inmate] employee for 30 days,” a spokesperson for the sheriff’s workplace defined. “Please observe that the Sheriff’s Workplace has no function within the decide’s sentencing choices. The findings in a sentencing order, whether or not to grant sentencing credit score for time spent in packages, and the way a lot credit score to grant, are completely determined by the decide.”
Mitchell will stay on obligatory supervised launch, the Illinois equal of parole, till December 27, 2025. The result of his juvenile carjacking case is unknown as a result of state legislation prevents these data from being launched.
