Get got a 9 year sentence for carjacking a 69-year-old woman, but didn’t spend a single night in prison. Here’s why.

CHICAGO — Even in a state the place most jail sentences are robotically minimize in half, Damajae Mitchell’s state of affairs is an eye-opener.

Mitchell, 20, pleaded responsible late final month to carjacking and making an attempt to rob a 69-year-old girl on the Northwest Facet. When he dedicated the crime, officers mentioned, he had one other carjacking case pending in juvenile courtroom.

After Mitchell entered his plea on June 26, Choose Timothy Joyce sentenced him to 9 years in jail for vehicular hijacking of a senior citizen with a concurrent three-year sentence for aggravated battery of a peace officer.

In Illinois, these 9 years would sometimes be diminished to 4½. However Mitchell went dwelling with out spending a single evening in jail. We have been intrigued. How did that occur?

The crime

The carjacking occurred on St. Patrick’s Day 2022 within the 7100 block of West Summerdale. Prosecutors mentioned a 69-year-old girl was warming up her automotive when Mitchell and one other man appeared exterior her driver’s door round 6:10 a.m. Mitchell allegedly ordered her out at gunpoint.

Understandably scared, the girl exited the automotive, ran to a close-by dwelling, and commenced ringing the doorbell for assist.

Mitchell and the opposite man drove a brief distance within the girl’s Chevy Equinox, however the automotive stopped. Mitchell obtained out to confront the girl on the dwelling the place she was making an attempt to get assist.

The house’s Ring doorbell was recording as Mitchell held a gun to the girl and demanded her key fob, prosecutors claimed. She couldn’t discover it. Mitchell allegedly returned to the automotive and drove away.

Police tracked the automotive by way of GPS and arrested Mitchell after he crashed it right into a viaduct column. He put the automotive in reverse as cops approached on foot, smashed into a number of parked vehicles, then obtained out and ran throughout the highest of a number of autos earlier than police caught him, prosecutors mentioned.

Officers allegedly discovered an unloaded handgun on the rear driver’s facet floorboard.

The sentence

So, how did Mitchell go from a nine-year jail sentence to serving no time in jail? We requested round. After all, it was minimize in half robotically by state regulation. Then he obtained credit score for 833 days, simply over two years, spent within the county jail. That leaves a bit of greater than two years unaccounted for.

“Whereas in custody at [the Cook County jail], Mr. Mitchell was enrolled in York Various Excessive College for a complete of 752 days and was employed as an [inmate] employee for 30 days,” a spokesperson for the sheriff’s workplace defined. “Please notice that the Sheriff’s Workplace has no function within the decide’s sentencing choices. The findings in a sentencing order, whether or not to grant sentencing credit score for time spent in packages, and the way a lot credit score to grant, are completely determined by the decide.”

Mitchell will stay on obligatory supervised launch, the Illinois equal of parole, till December 27, 2025. The result of his juvenile carjacking case is unknown as a result of state regulation prevents these information from being launched.