The Cook dinner County choose who launched a repeat violent felon with 4 pending felony instances on digital monitoring final December, the identical felon prosecutors now say escaped that monitoring and shot two Chicago cops, killing one over the weekend, acknowledged through the listening to that the defendant probably would have confronted “a minimal $1 million bail” beneath the state’s outdated money bail system.
However Decide John Lyke stated that period was over.
“Our esteemed Legislature says, no, we’re not going to try this anymore,” Lyke stated in reference to Pretrial Equity Act provisions of the SAFE-T Act. “We’re going to make judges take a important take a look at it.”
And moments later, after explaining that he believed Alphonso Talley’s lifetime of armed robberies and carjackings may need been the results of an underdeveloped mind that had since matured — regardless that Talley had allegedly dedicated an armed carjacking and an armed theft with the identical mind simply eight months earlier — Lyke determined to let him go dwelling on an ankle monitor.
Lyke famous, nevertheless, it was “over the state’s rigorous objection.”
Talley’s file going into that December 11 listening to was heavy stuff. His 5 prior convictions embody 4 aggravated robberies and a conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
And prosecutor Loukas Kalliantasis reminded Lyke that Talley’s 4 pending instances have been accrued one atop the opposite, beginning with the stolen automotive and aggravated fleeing case, adopted by battering a Cook dinner County jail officer. After which, whereas on digital monitoring for these, allegedly carjacking a lady and robbing a person at gunpoint.
Kalliantasis detailed the carjacking and theft instances for Lyke, saying that Talley was carrying an ankle monitor when he and an confederate approached a lady who was seated in a Jeep close to the Calumet Inexperienced Line station. Each males displayed weapons, ordered her out, and drove off in her SUV, he stated. Footage from surveillance cameras on the CTA platform exhibits “the precise clothes that Mr. Talley and his co-offender have been carrying,” stated Kalliantasis.
About 25 minutes later, the stolen Jeep pulled as much as a person in Englewood, the place Talley and the confederate allegedly once more displayed weapons and ordered him handy over his belongings.
At about the identical time, CPD officers started monitoring an Apple AirTag contained in the stolen Jeep, Kalliantasis stated. Officers arrested Talley and one other man and allegedly recovered the second theft sufferer’s property from contained in the Jeep.
Because the listening to was being held, the county was nonetheless fuming about digital monitoring lapses that allowed one other man carrying an ankle monitor, Lawrence Reed, to repeatedly violate EM after which set a lady on fireplace whereas using a Blue Line practice within the Loop in November. Kalliantasis warned Lyke concerning the systemic weaknesses.
The county’s digital monitoring program, he reminded Lyke, had been moved into the workplace of the Chief Decide, which “doesn’t have a regulation enforcement arm” and has no enforcement instruments when individuals stroll away.
“As such, the state respectfully requests the defendant stay detained right now,” stated Kalliantasis.
However Talley’s public defender, Lauren Widdowson, countered that he had modified whereas in custody.
“He’s accomplished eight programs,” she stated. “Notably, he has accomplished the Rewired Program, Anger Administration, find out how to take care of nerve-racking life occasions, find out how to keep away from an opioid overdose, and fentanyl and find out how to check for it in medication.”
She added that Talley had robust household help and had turn into a father on October 8 when his daughter was born whereas he sat in jail.
Lyke stated he had seen Talley in courtroom since a minimum of 2023 and believed he had matured.
“This courtroom has had a chance to observe him. I’ve seen perspective changes,” Lyke stated. “He got here on this courtroom in 2023 extraordinarily offended. Mad on the world, for probably the most half.”
“The mere indisputable fact that he has 4 pending instances is egregious in and of itself and it could in sure cases shock the conscience.”
Nonetheless, the choose stated Talley’s prior crimes occurred when, “from a physiological standpoint, his mind wasn’t totally developed.” He added that Talley had used his eight months in custody constructively and that fatherhood may very well be life-changing.
“It seems his thoughts is lastly growing and he could also be on the trail to creating higher selections,” Lyke stated.
“When kids are born, that tends to alter a whole lot of people and make accountability and your selections a bit of bit extra poignant and a bit of extra actual as a result of you might have a bit of human being counting on you to maintain them.”
Lyke weighed all of it — Talley’s 5 felony convictions, his 4 pending instances, and the ankle monitor he was carrying when he allegedly dedicated two of these pending instances whereas armed with a gun — and determined that he couldn’t hold Talley in jail beneath the SAFE-T Act.
“This courtroom can’t discover that the state has met its burden by clear and convincing proof that there isn’t a situation or mixture of circumstances that this courtroom can impose to guard any individual or individuals in the neighborhood when weighing every part with a contemporary set of eyes and understanding,” Lyke stated.
“Over the state’s rigorous objection, the defendant’s movement is granted. Defendant will probably be launched on digital monitoring.”
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