Joliet Police Raid His House On Waverly Place, SAFE-T-Act's Dangerousness Standard Imposed By Judge Barrett

JOLIET, IL — In one of his key decisions over the weekend, Will County Judge Brian Barrett ruled in favor of the Will County State's Attorney's Office in its petition to deny pretrial release for Joliet 23-year-old Nicholas Gutierrez, whose house near Plainfield Road was raided by the Joliet police force on Friday.

Joliet police took Gutierrez away in handcuffs and he's being kept in the Will County Jail on charges of unlawful manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, illegal possession of ammunition.

According to prosecutors: Joliet police raided the Gutierrez house in the 1300 block of Waverly Place on Friday and Nicholas Gutierrez was the target of the search warrant.

The officers found a man and a woman, both born in the 1970s, a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and Gutierrez inside the residence.

Joliet police recovered 48 grams of heroin and two scales in the kitchen and 100 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition and four rounds of 9mm ammunition. As for Gutierrez, his previous criminal history as a juvenile delinquent has included a 2021 armed robbery and a 2019 unlawful possession of a weapon "therefore, he is not eligible for a FOID card," prosecutors informed Judge Barrett. "The defendant had $415 in cash in his pocket."

As for the other two adults, "they had no knowledge of the heroin and ammunition," court files show.

As it turns out, Gutierrez was already on pretrial release for another 2026 felony crime in Will County involving possession of a controlled substance, prosecutors pointed out.

In the end, Judge Barrett checked the box on the court order indicating that based upon clear and convincing evidence, he was keeping Gutierrez detained under the SAFE-T-Act's dangerousness standard.