Four years. That’s the sentence given to a man accused of firing a handgun toward a group of people in the Near North neighborhood on June 9, 2018.
Trashawn Steele, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon with a previous conviction and one count of aggravated battery to a police officer in a deal with prosecutors.
Judge Catherine Haberkorn sentenced Steele to two concurrent four-year terms.
Police arrested Steele at a River North gas station on July 5, 2018, after he was allegedly identified as the man who shot toward a people on the 900 block of North Cambridge about a month earlier.
Steele “became irate” as cops tried to place him into a transport van and said, “I ain’t going up in there. You have to shoot me!” He battered one officer, prosecutors said.
According to Illinois Department of Corrections records, Steele previously received a three-year sentence for battery to a police officer in 2014.
Steele received credit for 440 days spent in jail awaiting trial on the 2018 charges. The state will cut his sentence by 50% for good behavior, giving him an anticipated parole date of June 26 of next year.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop eleven felonies, including multiple counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, being a felon in possession of a handgun, and aggravated battery to police.
Not Guilty
A man who police accused of having a gun in his car as he drove around Edgewater in March 2018 has been found not guilty in a bench trial.
Police said they pulled Justin Johnson over on the 2000 block of West Granville because his car had only one headlight and no working tail lights. Officers further accused Johnson of having pot in his pants pocket and on his car’s center console.
And, police alleged, when a cop tried open the locked glove compartment of Johnson’s car, the 27-year-old turned nervous and reportedly asked if “it’d be OK to not search the glove box.”
Police said they eventually opened the compartment and found a loaded 40-caliber handgun inside. Johnson denied ownership of the gun.
Johnson waived his right to a jury trial and put his fate in the hands of Cook County Judge Shelley Sutker-Dermer, who found him not guilty.
