Joliet Shooter Found At Home Cut Donuts Urinated On Himself, Passed Out In Squad Car: Prosecutor

JOLIET, IL — Andrew "Drew" Planeta, a 47-year-old union painter who resides in Joliet, will not be released back in the community because of the dangerousness standard set forth in the Illinois SAFE-T-Act, Will County Judge Derek Ewanic ruled Thursday afternoon in Courtroom 202. Joliet police arrested Planeta on Tuesday inside the Home Cut Donuts restaurant in the 800 block of West Jefferson Street in connection with a Joliet neighborhood shooting about 10 minutes earlier.

Court documents reveal the shooting took place at a house on Margaret where a 45-year-old woman who broke up with Planeta the previous month was residing. The woman previously lived with Planeta for about a year, prosecutors outlined in their petition to deny pretrial release.

The Will County State's Attorney's Office has charged Planeta with aggravated DUI, two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and aggravated driving while license revoked. Planeta's loaded gun — a semi-automatic, black-colored Glock 23 — that he used to shoot in the direction of someone's house in Joliet — was found by Joliet police in plain view inside his vehicle at the Home Cut Donuts parking lot, according to Will County prosecutor Tricia McKenna.

When Joliet police tracked the shooter's 2023 silver Chevy Silverado pickup truck to the Home Cut Donuts, officers found Planeta seated inside the bakery, McKenna noted.

Planeta ultimately urinated on himself and during his Joliet police squad car ride back to the station he passed out, the prosecutor revealed. Planeta has four prior DUI convictions, and this marks his 5th DUI offense, McKenna told Judge Ewanic.

Planeta was already on probation at the time of his Home Cut Donuts arrest for a DUI in Nevada and a DUI in nearby Kane County. Planeta also has a conviction for a reckless discharge of a gun in 1995. He served a prison sentence in 1996 for possession of a gun by a felon, McKenna told Judge Ewanic.

Defense attorney Neil Patel urged the judge to place his new client on GPS monitoring or house arrest. Patel explained that his client would obtain a SCRAM device to prevent him from driving if alcohol was detected on his breath.

Although the Will County Jail lists Planeta as living at an address in Morris, Patel said his client has owned his home in Joliet for the past 10 years, where he lived with his fiancée. Planeta also has two grown kids, ages 25 and 19. Planeta is a member of Chicago-based Painters Local 184, but he was out of work at the moment. However, Planeta just finished a painting job that was six months long, according to Patel. An upcoming job opportunity to travel to New York for a painting project was no longer practical, Patel admitted, given his client's felony charges from Joliet police.

Patel questioned whether the prosecution has sufficient evidence to tie his client to this week's neighborhood shooting in the 100 block of Margaret Street and the aggravated DUI offense, noting there was no chemical testing performed by the Joliet police.

He suggested that because the windows were open, someone could have walked by and put the gun inside his client's truck parked at Home Cut Donuts.

Patel said the Joliet police observation that his client had "balance issues" and fell asleep during the squad car ride don't prove his client is guilty of aggravated DUI. However, Patel acknowledged that his client "has a history of DUI," but that does not make Planeta a violent criminal.

Judge Ewanic ruled Planeta could be a danger to the Joliet woman who saw the shooting; she called 911 after furnishing Planeta's license plate and vehicle description to authorities. And given that Planeta is facing a fifth DUI, Ewanic announced that releasing the Joliet man from the Will County Jail could put the entire community in danger.

The judge said he was particularly troubled by the fact that Planeta is currently on probation out of two different states, both involving DUI convictions.