Joliet Gunman 'With Abandoned And Malignant Heart' Gets Prison Term

JOLIET, IL — Deanthony Williamson, a 32-year-old Joliet street gang member who fired his rifle into a Joliet house where four children were sleeping, almost hitting them with his bullets, was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison by Will County Judge Vincent Cornelius.

Back in May, the same Will County judge found Williamson guilty at his bench trial of aggravated discharge of a gun, unlawful use of a weapon by a convicted felon and possession of a gun without a Firearms Owner Identification Card.

The shooting happened way back in 2018 and Joliet Patch covered it at the time.

According to Will County State's Attorney's Jim Glasgow, Williamson shot a Carbine rifle at a home on Hobbs Street in Joliet in September 2018.

The bullet went through the outside wall and into the front upstairs bedroom, over the heads of four sleeping children. Afterward, Williamson led Joliet police on a chase after they attempted to pull him over for failing to stop at a stop sign.

He then got out of the car and ran from the police, throwing the rifle over a fence. After Williamson was captured, police recovered the high-powered rifle from the backyard on the other side of the fence, Glasgow noted.

“The indiscriminate firing of a weapon in the direction of a home with four innocent sleeping children is reflective of an abandoned and malignant heart,” Glasgow declared in his press release. “The defendant will have over a decade in prison to think about his criminal conduct that easily could have resulted in the loss of precious lives."

Williamson will receive credit for 1,531 days already served, according to Will County prosecutors. In his press release, Glasgow also commended ASAs Alyson Wozniak and Mark Shlifka, Victim Witness Advocate Dannette Pasdertz, and the Joliet Police Department for their dedication and hard work in this case.