Teens from Chicago charged with murder after a 14-year-old was shot and killed by a homeowner with a gun told investigators they were in Lake County to commit burglaries and had stolen vehicles in the past, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Five Chicago teens, including four juveniles charged as adults, face charges after the fatal shooting at the home of a 75-year-old licensed gun owner who heard people on his property after 1 a.m. Tuesday and thought they were trying to steal his Audi, according to authorities.
Illinois law allows for authorities to charge suspects with murder if someone dies during the commission of another serious crime.
In this case, the teens were charged even though they were not holding the gun because 14-year-old Ja’quan Swopes, of Chicago, was killed during the suspected attempted car theft at a home in a remote area between Antioch and Gurnee called Old Mill Creek.
Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim said Wednesday that the forcible felony laws in Illinois are similar to others across the country and have been upheld by courts nationwide.
“The felony murder law is in place to discourage people from committing forcible felonies, because if someone dies during the commission of a forcible felony, then it’s first-degree murder,” Nerheim said.
Illinois is among the minority of states with the broadest possible application of the felony murder rule, said Steven Drizin, clinical law professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
Drizin said the scope of the Illinois law can be problematic, especially when defendants are teenagers, who tend to commit crimes in groups and are more impulsive and less deliberate in their actions.
“The legislature needs to act to narrow the scope of Illinois’ felony murder rule,” he said, citing the Lake County case as an example. “Especially in light of the fact that the penalties for both the underlying felony and murder are severe — and in the case of murder, mandatory. There is more than enough room to adequately punish these teenagers by sentencing them within the range of sentences for the burglary charge.”
Lake County sheriff’s office spokesman Sgt. Christopher Covelli said Wednesday that investigators believe the teens were in Lake County to commit crimes.
“Interviews with the defendants indicated they have previously stolen vehicles and were in Lake County to steal property,” Covelli said.
The 75-year-old homeowner told police he went outside to see why there were people near his parked 2011 Audi and yelled at the individuals to leave, but at least one male teen moved toward him with an unknown object in his hand, officials said in the release. The man could not be reached for comment.
According to a sheriff’s statement, an investigation found the six teenagers — ranging in age from 14 to 18 — traveled to Old Mill Creek in a stolen Lexus to commit a burglary.
Deputies responded to a 911 call in the 17600 block of West Edwards Road in Old Mill Creek about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday, in which the caller told dispatchers he shot at the defendants before they fled, according to the Lake County sheriff’s office.
The suspects left the area with Ja’quan, who had been shot in the head while standing outside the vehicle. The wounded teen was dropped off with another one of the defendants at a Gurnee accident scene. The 14-year-old was pronounced dead after being transported to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.
The incident culminated in a high-speed chase between the remaining defendants and police from Lake County to Chicago, where the teens were apprehended when the car they were driving ran out of gas.
A knife was recovered from the man’s driveway at the shooting scene, authorities said.
Lake County Coroner Dr. Howard Cooper said preliminary autopsy results show Ja’quan died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head.
The man who fired the shots, who was a licensed gun owner, has not been charged with any violations or crimes.
“That ultimately will be a decision made by the (Lake County) state’s attorney’s office, after they have an opportunity to review all of the investigative notes and reports,” Covelli said.
Earl Betts, 53, Ja’quan’s great-uncle, said the teen suffered without a solid father figure.
“There’s a bigger picture. … Yeah, it’s a sad thing,” Betts said. “He was a baby with no direction. … A child wasn’t given a chance to have any direction.”
No matter what the teen was dealing with, however, Betts said Ja’quan shouldn’t have been shot.
“He wasn’t given a chance. He was taken out like a damn dog. He was shot. Over a f—— car. … That’s sad.”
Covelli said Wednesday that evidence in the case does not include images from home video surveillance systems that might have been in the area.
“Surveillance cameras did not capture the shooting,” he said.
On Tuesday, the surviving teens were charged with first-degree murder, including three 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old who were charged as adults.
The names of the four juveniles who were charged were released Wednesday afternoon. According to a spokesman for the Lake County circuit clerk’s office, they are Stacy Davis, 17; Steven Davis, 17; Curtis Dawson, 16; and Kendrick Cooper, 17. All are from Chicago. The fifth teen charged was identified Tuesday as 18-year-old Diamond C. Davis of the 5700 block of South Bishop Street in Chicago. Diamond, Stacy and Steven Davis are siblings, according to authorities.
In bond court Tuesday, bail for each defendant was set at $1 million, with preliminary court dates set for Sept. 5 in Lake County Circuit Court.
Officials said the four younger teens are being held in juvenile detention in Vernon Township rather than in Lake County jail.
Nerheim said age is taken into consideration both at the time charges are filed and when the cases are eventually resolved.
He said the components in the decision to charge the defendants as adults in this case included the seriousness of the incident and prior criminal history of the defendants, some of whom he said have spent time in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.
The Lexus the teens drove to Old Mill Creek had been reported stolen in Wilmette, police said. Covelli said no charges have been filed in that case yet as investigators attempt to determine who stole the car. Covelli said after the defendants were apprehended, items reported stolen in previous burglaries were found in the trunk of the Lexus.
Known as the felony murder rule, the statute that allowed the teens to be charged with murder has proved controversial, particularly
when it is used to charge juveniles.
Drizin said the felony murder rule helps fuel mass incarceration by increasing the sentences for nonviolent felons to punishments designed for violent felons.
“The deterrence rationale of felony murder also doesn’t work when you’re dealing with impulsive teenagers,” he said. “These young people never imagined in their wildest dreams that they were going to confront a homeowner with a gun.”
The felony murder rule was recently used in Lake County when, according to authorities, a Lindenhurst man, who had set up a meeting to sell a gun to two men from Chicago from his house, shot and killed one of the men who attacked him with a hammer in October 2018.
Michael J. Zachery, 23, was charged and pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony murder for the shooting death of Joseph McHaney, 34 of Chicago, his partner in an alleged attempt to steal the unnamed Lindenhurst man’s guns. Zachery is currently scheduled for trial in November.
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