Man gets time served for not testifying about 2015 shooting
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man who was wounded during a 2015 gang-related shooting that left a bystander dead was sentenced Thursday to time served for refusing to tell a grand jury who fired the shots.
Federal prosecutors charged Deshawn Danzler, 26, with contempt of court for refusing to answer questions about the shooting during a 2019 grand jury appearance. They asked U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman to sentence the 26-year-old Danzler to up 12-1/2 years in prison. However, Guzman handed down a two-year sentence with time considered served.
Guzman said Danzler, who was in federal custody for two year, made a mockery of the criminal justice system, but considered Danzler’s apology to the court and his violent upbringing, including the 2009 murder of his 11-year-old brother and losing cousins, friends and neighbors to violence and addiction.
The Chicago Tribune reports Danzler told Chicago detectives while hospitalized he didn’t see the man who shot him and bystander Hammood Dawoudi, 23, in Danzler’s apartment. However, federal prosecutors contended he received a taunting telephone call from the suspected shooter the next day. Authorities also recorded telephone calls between Danzler and his brother, during which the shooter was named.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry III contended Danzler deserved a substantial prison sentence because he’d “shown a loyalty to an abhorrent code of the street.”
Danzler, in federal custody for nearly two years, is serving a nine-year Illinois prison sentence for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Once that sentence is complete, he’ll be released under the supervision of Guzman for three years. The judge ordered Danzler to seek employment, attend drug counseling and avoid contact with gang members.
“This was a gift,” Guzman told Danzler. “If you don’t abide by my conditions, you will be right back in jail.”
No one has been arrested for the fatal shooting of Dawoudi. However, prosecutors say the suspected gunman is in custody on charges stemming from another unrelated killing.