Joliet Crack Cocaine Defendant Must Remain Jailed Under SAFE-T-Act: Judge Ewanic

JOLIET, IL — On Friday, Deandre Davis, a 32-year-old Joliet citizen from the 800 block of Copley Lane, learned he must remain in Will County's Jail for an indefinite period of time after Will County Associate Judge Derek Ewanic ordered his detention in connection with allegations of dealing crack cocaine.

On Friday, Will County State's Attorney's Office prosecutors charged Davis with two crimes: unlawful manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

On Wednesday, just before lunch time, Will County's gang suppression unit and the Drug Enforcement Agency prepared to raid a house in the 400 block of South Briggs Street where Davis and another unnamed person were the police targets, the court files show.

The Will County Sheriff's Office had been in Richton Park conducting surveillance, since that's where Davis' cell phone was pinging. In Richton Park, police saw Davis leaving a house and carrying a red bag before entering a car. Through the phone ping, the police tracked Davis back to the Joliet address on South Briggs Street and when he arrived, he exited the car and carried his red bag.

Afterward, the sheriff's office raided the house, and Davis was arrested in the kitchen. Upon being read his rights, Davis requested a lawyer.

Meanwhile, on top of the refrigerator, the police seized a large sandwich bag, with three separate bags of cocaine and crack cocaine inside it, and they weighed 46.2 grams, prosecutors revealed.

A scale was recovered from a kitchen cabinet, and it contained cocaine residue. In the sink were loose pieces of crack cocaine and the sink was wet "as if someone just tried to wash the drugs down the sink. The red bag was found in the kitchen on a chair. Inside the bag "was prescription pill bottles with defendant's name and clothing," the court records show.

Officers took the sink pipe apart and recovered more of the crack cocaine from the pipes.

Inside the house on South Briggs, the police found four females and one of the women informed the police that she was in her son's room folding clothes when she heard banging at the door. She came to the kitchen and saw Davis in the kitchen by himself, standing at the sink, the prosecutors noted.

The woman informed Will County Sheriff's that when Davis comes over, he sleeps on the floor. The cell phone ping revealed that Davis slept at the house about 10 of the previous 20 days.

All the crack cocaine from the bag, sink and scale tested positive for crack cocaine and Davis had $743 cash on him at the time of Tuesday's arrest, prosecutors informed Judge Ewanic.

As for Davis, his criminal history, mostly in Will County, includes retail theft convictions from 2022, aggravated discharge of a gun from 2016, burglary in 2012 and criminal damage to property in 2014 plus a residential burglary as a juvenile from 2007.

After hearing the evidence, Judge Ewanic ruled in favor of the prosecution. He determined that under the dangerousness standard of the SAFE-T-Act and the willful flight standard, Davis must be kept inside the Will County Jail as his criminal case is pending at the courthouse.

Davis is being represented by the Will County Public Defender's Office.