A Chicago man who was 16 years old and already facing juvenile weapons charges when he helped orchestrate the fatal robbery of a pot dealer in Bronzeville has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, court records show.
Daykwon Griffin did not fire the shot that killed Lamontel Barnes on March 10, 2021, in the 3700 block of South Indiana Avenue, but prosecutors alleged he played a key role in setting up the meeting and then turned back toward the car after the shooting to wrestle a backpack of cannabis away from Barnes’ wounded front-seat passenger.
According to prosecutors, Griffin’s accomplice, another juvenile whose identity has not been made public, emailed Barnes to arrange a meeting. When the Barnes arrived, a woman was seated in the passenger seat, and he had a backpack containing cannabis on her lap.
Griffin stood at the driver’s window as his accomplice climbed into the back seat and immediately opened fire, prosecutors said. The woman tried to shield Barnes with her own body and suffered a graze wound to her left arm, according to prosecutors. Barnes died.
Both juveniles fled, prosecutors said, but Griffin turned back, reached through the driver’s window and took the backpack from the passenger before running to his nearby apartment.
A police officer who knew Griffin identified him from the apartment building’s surveillance footage and the Barnes’ passenger later picked Griffin out as the person who took the backpack, prosecutors said.
When investigators executed a search warrant at the apartment Griffin shared with his parents, they found two loaded handguns in his pants pockets, prosecutors claimed. Ballistics testing revealed what prosecutors described as a “high correlation” between one of those firearms and shell casings found in the back seat of the Barnes’ car.
At the time of the killing, Griffin was on pretrial release for two juvenile cases: armed robbery with a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon.
Though he was not the gunman, prosecutors charged Griffin with multiple counts of murder, robbery, and other felonies. This month, he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery by discharging a firearm before Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson, who imposed the 20-year sentence.
He must serve 85% of the time under state law. After receiving credit for 1,826 days spent in jail while awaiting trial, he has about 12 years to serve before he becomes eligible for release.
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