It happened again yesterday. Shortly after a CWB reporter settled in for an afternoon of felony bond court proceedings, prosecutors announced the first case of the day in which they would accuse someone of possessing a gun while on bail for another gun case. Toward the end of the session, another man was charged with having a gun while on bail for first-degree murder.
The cases are notable because, according to media reports last week, advisors to Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the entire Chicago Police Department could only identify two times in recent years that people were charged with new gun crimes in the city while on bail for another gun crime.
The report was laughable to anyone who monitors the news or is familiar with the county’s daily bond court calls. Yesterday, we reported that our reporter identified eight cases over the weekend in which gun charges were filed against people on bail for gun cases.
Just a few hours later, Vincent Davidson, 38, walked into a bond court hearing conducted via Zoom before Judge Mary Marubio. Prosecutors were charging him with a new case — unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. They said he was on bail for first-degree murder and shooting a second person when cops allegedly caught him with another gun this week.
On October 1, 2017, a man walked up to Tommie L. Jones, 28, and a 26-year-old woman as they stood in the 2600 block of East 75th Street around 10:30 a.m. The man pulled out a gun and opened fire on the two. Jones was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds to his head and back. The woman, shot in the back, was seriously wounded but survived.
Davidson was arrested on the day after Christmas the same year to face charges of first-degree murder and aggravated battery by discharge of a firearm in the case, according to CPD records. Two days later, a judge ordered him held without bail, and Davidson stayed behind bars until a judge reduced his bail to $300,000 in August 2020. Davidson was released after he posted a $30,000 deposit bond.
Yesterday, Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Burkhardt said Davidson carried out the 2017 shootings after a “verbal altercation.”
Monday, police pulled Davidson and his two passengers over for a traffic violation, Burkhardt said. The cops allegedly saw an open bottle of tequila in the car and asked everyone to step out of the vehicle. According to Burkhardt, when police asked Davidson if there was anything in his car, he said there was “something” in the center console.
The “something” turned out to be a loaded 9-millimeter handgun equipped with a laser sight, Burkhardt said.
“He is on bond for murder. He personally discharged a weapon in that case, shooting and killing someone,” Burkhardt told Marubio. “He is back out on the streets yet again with a firearm.”
Davidson’s public defender said he has four children and argued that two other people were in his car before police allegedly found the gun.
But Marubio didn’t see it that way. Instead, she ordered Davidson held without bail for violating the terms of his release in the pending murder case.
The judge said the $30,000 that Davidson posted “is an incredibly hefty bond and it didn’t move the needle.” She then ordered Davidson held without bail on the new gun charge, too.