A man convicted of killing 16-year-old Derrion Albert in 2009 was arrested Sunday after being seen with a gun in Pullman on the South Side.
Dionte Johnson, 24, was seen clutching an object in his waistband about 4:30 p.m. in the 10700 block of South Champlain Avenue in Pullman, Chicago police said. When police tried to pat him down, he allegedly jumped over a porch railing and fled on foot, tossing a semi-automatic handgun as he went.
Johnson was taken into custody in the 10700 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue and charged with one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon, police said. He was ordered held without bail Monday, according to Cook County court records.
In 2009, Johnson, then 14 years old, was charged with and ultimately convicted in the murder of Derrion Albert, a student at Fenger High School, along with 3 other teens. The beating that killed him was captured on a cellphone video and uploaded to Facebook, giving the case national attention.
Because of his age at the time, Johnson was sentenced to 30 years in prison but was allowed to put off the sentence, provided he did not commit another felony, according to multiple news reports.
In 2015, he was arrested again for aggravated fleeing from police, but the Cook County state’s attorney’s office did not pursue the 30-year sentence, court records show. Instead, Johnson was sentenced to electronic monitoring.
“Based on the Class 4 Felony, which carries a sentencing range of probation or up to three years in prison, it was not in the interest of justice to pursue a 30 year prison sentence in this case,” a spokesman for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx told ABC7.
Johnson’s next court date is Sept. 3.
