Joliet Teen With Loaded Semi-Automatic Pistol Should Be Denied Pretrial Release: Will County Prosecutors

JOLIET, IL — Will County Judge Chrystel Gavlin on Thursday rejected a petition to deny pretrial release for a 19-year-old Joliet teenager accused of possessing a loaded semi-automatic pistol. This week marked the second time already in 2026 that Joliet's Police Department has arrested Javon Jimerson, who comes from the east side's 600 block of Hobbs Avenue.

Jimerson is now facing two counts of aggravated unlawful possession of a gun.

According to the petition to deny pretrial release for Jimerson, prosecutors informed Judge Gavlin that on Tuesday, around 4 p.m., Joliet police had an unmarked squad near Second Avenue and Iowa Avenue when they saw Jimerson, "whom they knew due to previous arrests involving firearms. As they passed him, they observed the silhouette of a firearm in his front hoodie pocket. There was sufficient heft that the pocket sagged below his belt line," court documents say.

That's when Jimerson began looking over his shoulders toward the rear. An officer exited the squad and told Jimerson, "Come here!" and Jimerson ran away. Joliet police captured the teenager crouched under a staircase in the 600 block of Whitley, court files show. When Jimerson put an object behind the stairs, the officers warned him to stop or he would be tasered. By the time, Jimerson made it to Second Avenue and Whitley, he surrendered, prosecutors indicated.

Back on Whitley, the Joliet police found the black Sig Sauer P250 .9mm semi-automatic pistol with 20 ammunition rounds in the magazine and 1 bullet in the chamber, prosecutors noted. There was also a blue Laser sight on the 21-round gun. Joliet police spoke with two women who reside at the house on Whitley "who confirmed that it was not theirs and had not been there earlier."

Jimerson denied the gun was his when Joliet police tried to interview him, prosecutors noted. "The 19-year-old defendant has neither a FOID nor a Concealed Carry Permit," prosecutors said. "The People pray that this honorable court deny the defendant pretrial release."

Judge Gavlin rejected the Will County State's Attorney's Office petition. Instead, she informed the Will County Jail inmate that she was signing his pretrial release order. "The defendant is charged with a detention-eligible offense/circumstance, but following the detention hearing, the court denied the state's petition to detain for the following reasons: 'Conditions can mitigate,'" Judge Gavlin wrote.

After three days in the Will County Jail, the corrections security opened up the facility and let Jimerson out of their building at 4:38 p.m. on Thursday. Jimerson's next Will County Courthouse hearing will be in Courtroom 405 of Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak on April 30.

Judge Gavlin's order notified Jimerson not to leave the state of Illinois and to surrender any and all guns, ammunition or other dangerous weapons he owns within 48 hours of his release from custody. Jimerson was told he must turn over his guns to the Joliet Police Department, the agency that also put him in jail for three days in January on charges of home invasion causing injury and criminal trespass to a residence.