'Outraged Gangbanger On A Rampage' Gets 71 Years In Prison

SKOKIE, IL — Had he not been fatally shot in the back at the age of 14, Dajae Coleman would have turned 21 years old earlier this year. He would likely be away at college. And he would be older today than the man convicted of murdering him was at the time of his death on Sept. 22, 2012, in Evanston. Under a sentence imposed Wednesday in Skokie, his killer will be about 90 years old before he becomes eligible for parole.

Wesley Woodson, now 27, was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder five years after Coleman’s death. Jurors were told he shot into a group of teens on their way home from a party, Coleman’s first as a freshman at Evanston Township High School. Prosecutors said Woodson slipped out of his family home, grabbed a gun hidden in bushes nearby and approached Coleman and seven other boys with the intention of retaliation for a stabbing incident earlier that night and a report of gunfire minutes before the fatal shooting.

"Which one of you little [expletive] was just shooting?” Woodson said before firing five deliberately aimed shots into a crowd of eight fleeing teens, according to prosecutors and witnesses at trial.

“[Woodson] was trying to act tough” when he fired into the group, said Cook County Associate Judge Lauren Edidin. "This was the act of a coward."

Without a murder weapon or forensic evidence linking Woodson to the shooting, prosecutors relied an eyewitness testimony by a neighbor said who he saw Woodson shooting and later found shell casings in front of his home. Evanston police also testified to escalating levels of violence leading up to the killing involving rival neighborhood gangs.

“This was not an isolated incident,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Michele Gemskie, asking the judge to impose a sentence of life imprisonment at the hearing. “This was a pattern of violence and disrespect to the people of his community.”

Woodson himself had been shot less than six months before Coleman’s murder but he refused to cooperated with investigators and instead decided to “take things into his own hands,” she said. It led to an “out of control” situation in Evanston in the summer of 2012.

“It was his mistaken belief that Dajae Coleman and his friends were rival gang members,” according to Gemskie. She said Woodson “shot 15-year-old Dajae Coleman in the back as he was trying to run away from this outraged gangbanger on a rampage.”

The prosecutor's witnesses spent much of Wednesday’s sentencing hearing recounting Woodson’s disciplinary record — from high school, to interactions with police in Chicago, Evanston and Champaign and, after his arrest for Coleman’s murder, the Cook County Department of Corrections.

Evanston Township High School Principal Marcus Campbell testified Woodson had accumulated dozens of disciplinary offenses during his time at the school before graduating in the spring of 2010. After an attack on a teacher during his sophomore year where other students had to pull him away, Woodson was referred to the board for expulsion and placed into alternative schooling programs.

Next, a New Trier High School graduate testified that Woodson came up to him and begun beating him without provocation in January 2007 while on his way to a movie near the Davis Street CTA station in Evanston.

“There were no words,” he said. “I was approached and struck.”

The then-15-year-old was knocked to the ground and his wallet, iPod and shoes were stolen. Later that night he identified Woodson among those apprehended by police and his wallet was recovered. The witness said his parents did not allow him to go to court and the case was dismissed.

At the time of the murder, Woodson was facing charges of crack and marijuana possession following a traffic stop on Chicago’s South Side. In December 2011, Chicago police pulled over a car Woodson was driving and found a bag containing eight bags of cocaine and another bag with six bags of cannabis, according to testimony from Officer Gary Anderson. He had also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in exchange for a reduction in charges of aggravated battery to a University of Illinois police officer.

Other witnesses called in aggravation included two women whom Woodson had masturbated in front of while in jail custody, including an administrative assistant working at the holding cells in the Skokie courthouse and a law librarian.

“I was shocked. I’m working, right?” said the courthouse employee. “It made me very uncomfortable. I felt violated.” Prosecutors said Woodson also exposed himself to three nurses at the jail in October 2015 and January 2016. Steven Wilensky, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office director of inmate discipline, recounted roughly 25 disciplinary incidents involving Woodson during his time in custody. Woodson’s defense attorney asked whether there had been an “epidemic” of incidents of inmate indecency in the jail at the time.

“It was happening with great frequency,” Wilensky said.

Members of Woodson's family attended the sentencing hearing. His sister asked to speak on their behalf as a mitigating witness. She testified her older brother had always been her hero. "I don't view him as a monster," she said. She said she wanted Woodson to know that "we love him and that we're here."

Coleman's parents each addressed Woodson in emotional impact statements.

“Every day is a struggle to get through knowing my son is gone," said father Richard Coleman. He said he would "give anything" to have another 10 minutes with his son. He remembered his last conversation with the 14-year-old after giving him permission to go to the party with his friends.

“Make sure you call me so I can pick you up,” Coleman recalled. “I didn’t even tell him I love him, because I didn’t know that was going to be the last time I see my son.”

Instead of graduation, prom, holidays, the past nearly 2,400 days has been filled with "numerous court visits and cemetery visits" and a "lot of sleepless nights," Coleman testified, noting the pain Woodson had inflicted on his own family as well.

“Your sentence won’t bring him back but it does bring some closure,” Coleman told his son’s convicted killer.

Dajae Coleman's mother, Tiffany Rice, included memories from each of the 14 year of her son’s life in a statement about the impact of his murder.

“I was one of the lucky ones because Dajae made being a young parent relatively easy," Rice said, recounting her son's recognition as an outstanding student and athlete who had just begun his first job at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center the year he was murdered. She asked Woodson to remember Jan. 22, 1998, the day her son was born, and Sept. 22, 2012, the day he was fatally shot, for the rest of his life.

“I hope this has given you the chance to know Dajae, since you were one of the unlucky ones” who never got a chance to do so, she said.

Coleman's parents' statements were "two of the most eloquent I've ever heard as a defense attorney," said Assistant Public Defender David McMahon, who took over Woodson's representation following his conviction. He acknowledged Woodson had been a "troubled youngster" but pointed out that did not make him "public enemy number one."

As for the allegations of improper conduct in jail, which included possession of "jailhouse hooch," a makeshift pipe and fighting — in addition to the pending public indecency charges — McMahon said it was an understatement to point out that "it's the county jail. It's not a pleasant place."

The public defender said Woodson had been respectful in all his interactions with him, had the "foundations for rehabilitation" and noted that none of the allegations of prior aggravating behavior were gun-related.

Woodson was sentenced to 45 years imprisonment for the first-degree murder. The triggering offence of personally shooting a gun to kill someone required the judge to impose consecutive sentences, so she ordered 26 years for the attempted murder counts to follow. They must be served at 85% before the possibility of parole. Woodson received credit for 6½ years of time served.

“I sincerely hope with this sentence there is finally some closure to Dajae’s family," Edidin said. "I sincerely hope there is closure to the community."

McMahon said he plans to file a motion to reconsider the sentence and for an appeal with the appointment of the state appellate defender. Gemsci said the state’s attorney’s office would drop the other pending cases of drug possession and public indecency.

Following the hearing, Coleman's mother said the sentencing, coming 18 months after Woodson's conviction, was a milestone in the grieving process.

"I feel really, really good and appreciative about the judge’s sentence and her words. She sends a very powerful message in her words and in the sentence,” Rice said. “It felt like she was speaking for me. It felt like she was speaking for Dajae, and those words needed to be said. He needed to hear it. His family needed to hear it, the court needed to hear it and I hope he received it. I hope it reached him.”

Rice, who formed the Dajae Coleman Foundation to offer scholarships and other support to Evanston youth, said she had to step back after the trial and focus on healing.

"I just couldn’t make myself busy just so I could hide that pain," Rice said. "I wanted to create more Dajaes and see people inspired by him, which they still are, and that really, really keeps me going to this day."

Earlier:

• 5 Years After Fatal Shooting Of 14-Year-Old Dajae Coleman, Murder Trial Begins
• Eyewitness Testifies In Dajae Coleman Murder Trial
• Wesley Woodson Guilty Of Dajae Coleman's Murder, Attempted Murder Of 7 Others