A month after he filed controversial murder charges against five teens whose friend was killed during an alleged burglary, an Illinois prosecutor has decided to drop them for lesser charges under an agreement with the families of the suspects.
"The circumstances and facts outlined in my statement support the charge of felony murder," Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim said in a statement Thursday morning. "However, after full consideration of all the evidence, mitigation presented by defense counsel as well as the wishes of the victim's family, my office has entered into an agreement with defense counsel for the five offenders. This agreement ensures all offenders will be held responsible and face appropriate sentences."
Under the deal, Diamond Davis, 18, of Chicago, will appear in Lake County bond court at 1:30 p.m. Thursday where she will be charged with felony conspiracy to commit burglary and misdemeanor criminal trespass to a motor vehicle. Davis is expected today to waive her preliminary hearing, then plead guilty to the two charges next week, Nerheim said.
The felony murder charge will be dismissed today. The case will then be scheduled for a sentencing hearing after she pleads guilty, according to Nerheim.
The cases against the other four suspects, ages 16 and 17, will move to Juvenile Court, where the felony murder charge will be dismissed, Nerheim said. "Due to strict laws governing juvenile courtroom proceedings, my office is unable to give details regarding the charges involving the juveniles going forward," he said.
A Sept. 5 hearing for the teens, dubbed the "Lake County Five" by some activist groups, was delayed at the requests of prosecutors, who said the investigation wasn't complete. At the time, they said they had contacted defense attorneys to reach the consensus on a continuation.
Assistant State's Attorney Steve Scheller said investigators were still reviewing "hundreds of pages" of police reports from four different jurisdictions, and that, "We're looking at everything before making a final charging decision."
The state's attorney's office has said all felony cases are subject to a revision before formal charges are finalized, and sometimes the charges are upgraded or downgraded based on the investigation.
The teens were charged with murder in the shooting of one of their friends by an Old Mill Creek homeowner, who told police the group was in his driveway near one of his cars in the early morning hours of Aug. 13.
The homeowner involved told police that when a member of the group began moving toward him with something in his hand, he fired shots, striking 14-year-old Ja'quan Swopes in the head and killing him. Authorities said a knife was found on the driveway in the area in which the homeowner said the teens were.
Bail for each suspect was set at $1 million. Officials said the four younger teens are being held in juvenile detention in Vernon Township rather than in the Lake County jail.
According the Lake County Sheriff's Office, an investigation found the six teenagers traveled to Old Mill Creek in a stolen Lexus to commit a burglary. The homeowner went outside to see why there were people near his parked 2011 Audi and yelled at them to leave, but at least one male teen moved toward him with an unknown object in his hand, officials said.
The teens fled with the fatally wounded teen, and Swopes and another one of defendants were dropped off at a Gurnee accident scene to seek medical help, according to police reports.
Authorities said the remaining teens left the accident scene and led police on a high-speed chase from Lake County to Chicago, where they were apprehended when the car they were driving ran out of gas.
While Illinois law allows authorities to charge suspects with murder if someone dies during the commission of a felony, Nerheim's decision to charge the teens with the felony murder of one of their group shot by someone else resulted in a backlash from activist and advocate groups.
Nerheim previously has said 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 after the charges were announced.
According to a sheriff's office release, the teens were initially charged with murder during the commission of a forcible felony, because, when the 14-year-old was shot and subsequently died, the group was in "the commission of a burglary."
