18-Year-Old Gets Prison For Fatal Old Mill Creek Car Burglary

WAUKEGAN, IL — The oldest of five teenagers initially charged with murder in the death of their 14-year-old companion during an attempted car burglary was sentenced to a year in state prison Tuesday. The lone adult and female defendant among a group dubbed the "Lake County Five" pleaded guilty in September to reduced charges of conspiracy to commit burglary and criminal trespass to a vehicle.

Diamond Davis, 18, of Chicago, was arrested Aug. 13 on the city's Near West Side following a high-speed chase from Lake County of an SUV stolen from Wilmette two days earlier, authorities said. The pursuit, which reached speeds of more than 100 mph and ended only when the SUV ran out of gas, began when Gurnee police started chasing a car that had just dropped off Davis' critically wounded 14-year-old cousin, Jaquan Swopes, with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Lake County sheriff's office.

Davis admitted accompanying five other South Side teens around to the secluded driveway of a home along West Edwards Road early that morning, arriving around 1:15 a.m. in the rural Lake County community of Old Mill Creek, according to the sheriff's office.

A 75-year-old homeowner licensed to carry a gun told investigators he had been awakened by lights in his driveway. He said he fired shots after two of the young men rushed towards him, according to the sheriff's office. One was holding an object, the homeowner said, and a hunting knife was found near the scene.

No charges were filed against the Lake County man who fatally shot Swopes. Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim initially elected to charge Davis and the four others arrested — all aged 16 or 17 — with first-degree murder under the felony murder rule. Under Illinois' version of rule, anyone found to have taken part in a "forcible felony" the leads to a death is eligible. Critics of the state's version of the law, which does not differentiate between those who intend to kill and their accomplices, argued it disproportionately affects women and young people who are more likely to be charged alongside co-defendants.

On Sept. 19, Nerheim announced he was dropping the murder charges as part of a negotiated agreement with defense attorneys for Davis and the juvenile defendants. He said he exercised prosecutorial discretion by dropping the charges, even though they he maintained they fit the crime.

"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," Nerheim said in a statement. He said he aimed to balance his obligations to ensure the safety of the community and the fair treatment of those charged by his office.

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After hearing mitigating and aggravating factors at Tuesday's sentencing hearing, Judge Victoria Rossetti sentenced Davis to one year in prison to be followed by one year of court supervision. Davis was given credit for the nearly three months she has spent at Lake County Jail in lieu of $100,000 cash and must serve at least half of her remaining sentence, according to court records.

Assistant State's Attorney Ken LaRue, chief of Nerheim's felony trial division, argued for Davis to be sentenced to prison time for an offense that could have led to a maximum sentence of three years in state prison and one year in county jail, according to the state's attorney's office.

Davis cried throughout her sentencing hearing and apologized to everyone affected by the incident, according to the News-Sun. During the hearing, Davis' aunt — the mother of the boy who fatally shot the night of the incident — asked the judge to sentence Davis to probation instead of prison time, according to the paper, and Davis' mother, left to take care of her daughter's 1-year-old boy, offered to drive Davis to all her probation appointments and programs.

Assistant Public Defender Jeff Facklam asked Rossetti to sentence Davis to probation, according to the Daily Herald, arguing it would be more likely than prison time to encourage her rehabilitation.

LaRue told the judge Davis had an extensive criminal record before turning 18, according to the News-Sun. He played video in court captured by a doorbell surveillance camera in Wilmette from days before the deadly driveway encounter that Davis' attorney admitted showed her burglarizing a car, the News-Sun reported. Police said the Lexus had been left unlocked when it was stolen from the village.

The prosecutor also argued that Davis abandoned Swopes when she got back in the stolen SUV after the fleeing teens dropped off their mortally wounded companion in Gurnee, the Daily Herald reported.

In sentencing her to a year in prison followed by a year of supervision, Rosetti said a sentence of probation "would depreciate the seriousness of the crime," according to the Daily Herald.