Name: Gang member gets time served for refusing to testify about shooting that killed one and left him badly wounded
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Gang member gets time served for refusing to testify about shooting that killed one and left him badly wounded

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AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneFeb 25, 2021 at 4:33 pmDeshawn Danzler isn’t accused of shooting anybody. In fact, he was a victim in a 2015 gang-related ambush that left him badly wounded and an innocent bystander dead, prosecutors say.But on Thursday, it was Danzler who faced the ire of a federal judge for refusing to tell a grand jury who shot him, even though he’d been granted immunity from prosecution.AdvertisementIn sentencing Danzler, 26, to roughly two years in prison for contempt of court — with time considered served — U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman said he had made a mockery of the criminal justice system and perpetuated a “no-snitch” street code that makes it impossible for law enforcement to break the city’s never-ending cycle of violence.“I find that extremely upsetting and serious,” Guzman said. “It’s got to stop someplace, because if it keeps on going at the rate it’s been going, we won’t be a civilized community anymore.”AdvertisementStill, Guzman decided to cut Danzler a break, noting his apology to the court and lengthy statement about his tragic upbringing, including the 2009 murder of his 11-year-old brother, witnessing his best friend being fatally shot in 2013, and losing cousins, friends and neighbors to violence and addiction.“Your honor, I’ve been jumped, shot, cut, backstabbed. ... I’ve been everything in life but successful,” Danzler said via telephone from the Metropolitan Correctional Center. “I am tired of losing people to the streets and the system. ... I want to be the one to break the cycle.”Court records show Danzler could have faced up to about 12½ years in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry III wrote that a substantial prison sentence was warranted because Danzler had “shown a loyalty to an abhorrent code of the street.”In asking for time served, his attorney, Keri Ambrosio, ripped prosecutors for turning the tables on a shooting victim and punishing him for acting on a very real fear of being labeled a snitch.Last year, Danzler mailed a lengthy, handwritten letter to the judge from jail decrying the position prosecutors were putting him in, saying he was suspicious that his previous attorney didn’t believe him and was “wearing a wire for the government” when he asked him to fess up about the shooting.“The government is making me to be an accessory to my own shooting where I almost lost my life,” he wrote.Danzler, who has been in federal custody for nearly two years, is serving a nine-year state prison sentence for a Cook County conviction on charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm.Once he’s done with that sentence, he’ll be released under the supervision of Guzman for three years, with strict orders to seek employment, attend drug counseling and avoid contact with gang members.Advertisement“This was a gift,” Guzman warned Danzler. “If you don’t abide by my conditions, you will be right back in jail.”Danzler, a reputed gang member with a lengthy criminal record, was inside his basement apartment of a three-story building in the 7900 block of South State Street in June 2015 when someone knocked on the door shortly before 10 p.m., according to prosecutors.After Danzler opened the door, a gunman emerged from behind a stairwell and . Danzler was wounded in the leg and shoulder and grazed in the head.A second man, Hammood “Solo” Dawoudi, 23, who lived in the first-floor apartment, was struck several times by the gunfire. He died a short time later, police said.Police said the attack on Danzler appeared to be gang retaliation for another shooting hours earlier and just a mile away at 79th Street and South Langley Avenue.While being treated at the hospital, Danzler told Chicago police detectives he did not see the shooter. But the next day, according to federal prosecutors, he received a telephone call from the suspected killer himself. During the call, the gunman, identified only as Individual A, taunted Danzler, telling him, he was “fast,” unlike the “other guys,” according to prosecutors.AdvertisementAuthorities also listened in on recorded calls later that month between Danzler and his brother, who was in the Cook County Jail at the time. During those calls, Danzler described the shooting in detail and identified the shooter by name, according to prosecutors, who have labeled him Individual A.Nearly four years later, Danzler was asked in March 2019 to testify about the shooting to the grand jury, which was investigating the incident as part of a broader probe into the Evans Mob street gang faction.After Danzler refused to cooperate, then-U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo warned him he could be charged with contempt and gave him time to reconsider, records show.On April 3, 2019, Danzler was brought back before Castillo, who asked if he’d “thought about it some more?” Danzler replied, “Not at all, sir.“I wish they would charge me with whatever they will charge me with and get it out of the way,” Danzler said, prompting a rebuke from the judge.“You have a very, I would say, Mr. Danzler, cavalier attitude about this,” Castillo said, according to excerpts provided by prosecutors. “You’re conveying to me ... you could care less about this, and that’s pretty sad.”AdvertisementDanzler eventually was ordered to appear before the grand jury on May 22, 2019. A portion of Castillo’s order granting him immunity was read aloud. A prosecutor then asked Danzler if he understood he was required to testify.“I mean, yes. I guess, yeah,” Danzler said, according to the charges.But when prosecutors asked Danzler if he’d been shot on that night in 2015, he replied, “I refuse to answer questions,” according to the indictment.Later, Danzler was asked by prosecutors: “After you were shot, did you find out that a person you know as Solo was outside of your door and that he was murdered by the individual that shot you?”“I mean, what you want me to say?” Danzler responded, according to the indictment.“Are you refusing to answer that question?” the prosecutor asked.Advertisement“I refuse to answer anything, anything,” Danzler allegedly responded.Asked repeatedly to identify the gunman, he said, “I just said I want to remain silent. Why you keep asking me questions?” records show.Danzler was charged with contempt after that hearing. He pleaded guilty in November, according to court records.Meanwhile, no one has been charged in Danzler’s shooting or the killing of Dawoudi. The suspected gunman, however, is in custody on charges stemming from another unrelated killing, according to prosecutors. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneFeb 25, 2021 at 4:33 pmDeshawn Danzler isn’t accused of shooting anybody. In fact, he was a victim in a 2015 gang-related ambush that left him badly wounded and an innocent bystander dead, prosecutors say.But on Thursday, it was Danzler who faced the ire of a federal judge for refusing to tell a grand jury who shot him, even though he’d been granted immunity from prosecution.AdvertisementIn sentencing Danzler, 26, to roughly two years in prison for contempt of court — with time considered served — U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman said he had made a mockery of...

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Jason Meisner

The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Gang member gets time served for refusing to testify about shooting that killed one and left him badly wounded

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