Not Enough Sunlight At Jail For Joliet Murder Defendant: Lawsuit

JOLIET, IL — Joliet resident Elijah J. Watson has lived inside the Will County Jail since his first-degree murder arrest by the Will County Sheriff's Office on Oct. 29, 2018. The night before, Watson fatally shot 20-year-old Nathan Ballard in Joliet Township near the Belmont Athletic Club baseball diamond property, according to Will County prosecutors.

Now, Watson is 25 years old, and while he has not stood trial for Ballard's killing, Watson has used his time at the jail to file a pro se lawsuit in recent days against Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley, Warden Dale Santarelli and the Will County Adult Detention Facility.

Watson contends that his rights are being violated because he is not receiving a sufficient amount of sunlight on a regular basis.

While Watson was in the H-Pod at the jail from 2018 until present, "plaintiff was denied access to natural light because the window in the dayroom of his dayroom units was very filthy that no sunlight could enter the window," Watson wrote in his lawsuit.

"Plaintiff was also denied access to fresh air because there was no outdoor recreation area or window in the cells for the plaintiff to open window to get fresh air so plaintiff wrote an emergency grievance to Warden Santarelli about no adequate sunlight and outdoor recreation, but, no reply back after 48 hours, leaving the plaintiff in limbo of what to do next."

According to Watson's lawsuit, he "took it in his own hands and filed a civil complaint against the defendants for lack of access to outdoor areas and natural light was a violation of the Eight Amendments (sic)."

Watson goes on to state in his lawsuit that "by law, plaintiff (sic) are entitled to natural sunlight and adequate amount of recreation time outside a week."

Watson, who is from the unit block of Joliet's Northwest Circle Drive, now wants a Will County jury to award him for pain and suffering, distress, mental and physical damage a total sum of $1 million.

"The plaintiff demands that the case be tried by jury," Watson wrote.

Even though Watson has remained in the Will County Jail facing first-degree murder charges for more than two-and-a-half years now, his criminal case has not even been given a trial date yet, court records show.

"Detectives would later learn that the suspects in this case intended on robbing the victim, Nathan Ballard, and upon doing so and while driving away from the victim, several shots were fired in the vicinity of Ballard by Elijah Watson. Ballard suffered a single gunshot wound to the upper chest, from what appears to be from a semi-automatic 9 mm handgun," Will County police said in 2018.

To read Joliet Patch's original coverage of Watson's arrest: "2 Confess To Joliet Township Murder: Will County Sheriff," go here.