Man With Gun Who Fled Glencoe Cops, Crashed Was On Gun Probation At The Time: Prosecutors
SKOKIE, IL — A Cook County judge ordered the south suburban man accused of having a gun and crashing a stolen car during an abortive attempt to evade arrest in Glencoe to remain detained.
Damion Stephenson, 22, of Dixmoor, appeared in court Friday in Skokie for a detention hearing following his arrest early Wednesday morning.
Stephenson has been charged with armed violence, possession of a stolen vehicle, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, criminal damage to government property and aggravated fleeing.
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Prosecutors revealed he was on probation for a previous gun charge at the time of the incident and asked for him to be jailed while awaiting trial.
Officers from the Glencoe Public Safety Department got a report of a suspicious car in Winnetka along the border between the two villages around 4 a.m., according to Glencoe village staff.
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Prosecutors said Glencoe officers had been alerted to a car burglary in the neighboring town and been given a description of a car and an SUV.
A patrolling officer found a silver Nissan Maxima and a black Audi SUV parked beside each other at Sheridan Road and Lapier Street, with the Nissan’s engine running even though no one was inside. Authorities said both cars turned out to be stolen.
The officer spotted a man in a ski mask hop into the Nissan and both cars began to drive away, according to police and prosecutors. Focusing on the Nissan, the officer followed at 60 mph in a 30 mph zone and broke off the chase after seeing the Maxima continue to drive even faster.
When the driver of the stolen Nissan turned down a dead end street, the officer was able to catch up, according to police and prosecutors.
The driver of the fleeing car made an attempt to drive off the road and escape but crashed into a village-owned tree instead, authorities said.
Assistant State’s Attorney Nick Campbell said Stephenson bailed out of the car and took off running, leaving behind a pistol with an illegal magazine and a cell phone containing photos of him holding what appears to be the very same firearm.
Police found Stephenson sitting against a garage doorway of a home near Duke Park. At the time he was holding a credit card belonging to a man whose car had been burglarized earlier in Western Springs. Glencoe officers also found the wallet of the burglary victim, according to the prosecutor.
Village staff said Stephenson was identified through a combination of video and physical evidence collected from along the path he fled and physical evidence linking him to the stolen car, as well as the stolen property in his possession at the time of his arrest.
The Nissan, which had been reported stolen on May 30, was also captured on security video the morning of his arrest a few blocks from the home of the person whose stolen credit card Stephenson was caught holding, Campbell said. That video showed three people get out of the Nissan and try to open the door of another car.
In addition to seeking his pretrial detention as a threat to the community, Campbell petitioned for the revocation of Stephenson’s probation.
The prosecutor said Stephenson pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and was sentenced to two years of probation through the First Time Weapon Offense Program, which allows for some defendants to avoid having a criminal conviction on their record.
According to Campbell, Stephenson’s probation was violated in January for failure to comply but it remains an open probation rather than a conviction.
Associate Judge Anthony Calabrese said Stephenson’s probation status and previous violations gave him “no confidence” that he would comply with any conditions of pretrial release.
“There’s a Glock 22, a semiautomatic handgun with an extended magazine with an unknown amount of rounds that could unleash great damage to officers or civilians or anyone who, perhaps, would make the mistake of attempting to prevent them from burglarizing a vehicle,” Calabrese said. “There’s no reason to have a weapon like that unless one is intending to use it.”
The judge also noted the evidence allegedly recovered from Stephenson’s cell phone following a search warrant.
“It’s a trophy picture of he and the weapon, which gives you an understanding as to how he feels about the weapon and the use of the weapon and how proud he is to have it,” he said. “That’s not a good combination.”
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