Joliet Gunman Found Sleeping, His Glock Had 12 Rounds In Magazine, 1 Bullet In Chamber: Prosecutors

JOLIET, IL — Will County Judge Chrystel Gavlin has chosen to impose the SAFE-T-Act's dangerous standard in order to keep Joliet gun criminal Deamontae Hunter in the Will County Jail, following last week's early morning house raid in Joliet's Forest Park area by the Will County Sheriff's Office.

Of note, Hunter was not even the main target of the police raid, the court files show.

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According to the Will County State's Attorney's office successful petition to deny pretrial release, at 5:20 a.m. on Thursday, September 10, a search warrant was executed at the single-family home in the 1200 block of California Avenue.

After three unsuccessful tries to gain entry by knocking and announcing, the sheriff's deputies used a ram to breach the rear entry door. There were three separate bedrooms, and each was occupied. Two were on the first floor. One had a man and woman, and that door was locked. A second one had an unlocked door where Dermetrious Lindsey was inside.

Upstairs, in a south-facing bedroom, the locked door was soon breached. Defendant Hunter was found sleeping on the bed. Next to this sleeping defendant, on a pile of clothes, was a black Glock .45, with 12 rounds in the magazine and one round in the chamber, prosecutors revealed.

Prosecutors noted that on top of the dresser in that same room was a clear bag which contained white powder and white rock. It weighed 60 grams and field-tested positive for cocaine. Also on top of that same dresser was $380. Finally, a bag of suspected ecstasy, pink in color, and weighing 5 grams, was in that same location. On the bed, with the defendant was a clear plastic bag with 4.9 grams of suspect cocaine, and Hunter's I-phone, court records reflect.

Hunter Interviewed By Sheriff's Office

According to prosecutors, Hunter stated he did not know anything about either the gun nor the narcotics in his bedroom.

"In the interest of completeness, we add that 11.7 grams of suspect cocaine, field-testing positive, was recovered from the bedroom where Lindsey had slept, in the back pocket of a pair of jean shorts. Lindsey later stated that he had been staying there with Sean Hughes for about a week, and knew nothing about anything in the house," prosecutors pointed out for Judge Gavlin.

Court documents indicate that proof of residency, including U.S. Mail was recovered for Sean Hughes, the target of the search warrant, who was the man in the first-floor bedroom with the lady.

"Also noteworthy is that 28 grams of apparent narcotics, no initial positive field test, was recovered in a single bag in the kitchen area, along with a scale, were recovered from the kitchen counter. This is also being sent to the Crime Lab," prosecutors outlined.

As for Hunter, he has been the focus of multiple Joliet Patch crime articles over the years including one about the still unsolved murder of Floyd Faint Jr. who was killed near Rockdale along a secluded section of the I&M Canal Trail in 2019.

In their petition to deny pretrial release, Will County's prosecutors noted how Hunter has the two separate prior convictions for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and two separate sentences to the Illinois Department Of Corrections for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.

A third adult firearms conviction, for unlawful possession of a firearm by a street gang member, is from 2015 in Will County. And there is a fourth firearms finding of guilt in Will County, case 2011 JD 285.

"Finally, we remind This Court that 85 percent Truth-In-Sentencing applies to Count I here," prosecutors noted.