The Joliet teen charged with killing two men and wounding another in a cowardly ambush shooting claimed he doesn't even know why he's in jail.
"I was just picked up and put down here—I don't even know what I'm down here for," said Sjolante Crowder, who allegedly shot down three men Tuesday night, taking two of their lives.
Crowder appeared at his Thursday afternoon bond hearing through a closed-circuit television broadcast from the county jail.
"I just turned 18 and, can I speak now?" Crowder asked Judge Marzell Richardson at the start of the hearing.
The judge told him he'd be better off keeping quiet.
"You might think you're not saying anything implicating, but it could be used against you," Judge Richardson advised the young man.
But Crowder kept talking anyway.
"I don't really know what to say, your honor, because I didn't have anything to do—I wasn't even there," Crowder explained.
Richardson went ahead and appointed a public defender to represent Crowder, but the jailed man's sister spoke up and told the judge a private attorney will be hired for her brother.
The sister, China Hill, later said she knows her brother could not have been the triggerman responsible for the killings because she was talking to him on the telephone at the time of the gun attack. Hill conceded that said she did not actually know where her brother was or what he was doing while they were talking.
A large group of friends and family turned out to support Crowder at his first court appearance. One young woman was thrown out of the courthouse before the hearing started when she refused to give a bailiff her name.
The enraged woman hurled her cell phone against a courthouse wall, smashing it, and departed while a county deputy was threatening to arrest her.
Crowder allegedly killed Delasse Lanier, 18, and Adrian Knox, 17, both of Joliet, and wounded 19-year-old Jordan Caples on Second Avenue Tuesday night.
The three young men were standing in a crowd of two dozen or so when a black-clad Crowder slunk up behind them and opened fire at close range, police said.
Lanier and Knox were pronounced dead at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox soon after the shooting. Caples, who took a bullet to his upper back, drove himself to Provena St. Joseph Medical Center and survived.
Joliet Police Chief Mike Trafton said the gun attack stemmed from a fight between two young women earlier in the evening. Joliet police Cmdr. Brian Benton said the killings had "definite gang overtones."
Lanier and Knox were the second and third teens shot to death inside 24 hours from Monday night through Tuesday night.
The killings started when 18-year-old Tevin Bridges was gunned down in the Lois Place apartments. Darrel Perkins, a 53-year-old man who sells cigarettes, marijuana and food out of his home in the apartment complex, was charged with Bridges' murder.
Perkins is being held at the county jail on a $3 million bond. Crowder, who was caught the day after the killings while sitting with two other men on a Richards Street porch, has a $7 million bond.
After the bond hearing Tuesday, some of Crowder's friends and family complained that there was no evidence tying him to the crime other than the accounts of witnesses.
"He ain't guilty till God say he's guilty," said a woman identifying herself as Crowder's grandmother Regina Crowder. "Clean up your own God damn house."
DON'T MISS THE LATEST JOLIET NEWS. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER
What do you have to say about that 53-year old dope who shot (an 18 year old kid)who didn't want to pay $1.00 for two cigarettes he was selling? What kind of people live in these areas?
Jackson and Sharpton are nowhere to be found when it's black on black crime because they can't blame the murders on racism and will never admit that the majority of violent crimes are committed by members of their own race.
The problem will continue as long as we have a leaders like Obama who believes we should redistribute resources from those who work and believe in supporting their families to the these cockroaches who refuse to work and prefer to live off the government.
That being said Clutche it is an embarassment to this country and your family that you even think it appropriate to speak your racist trash. Look back in history up to current day, guess who commits the MOST crimes? Dumb white trash. That is fact. Guess who holds back society both morally and scientifically? Dumb white trash. That is fact. Guess who creates a culture where minorities give up on a future because of the inherent racism they face every day of their life? Dumb white trash. Another fact. You are the animal in society Clutche. Your racist small minded ways have no place in the modern world.
This is a terrible situation and you are on this site everyday stereotyping, being negative, misjudging people, being racist and giving your opinion, just like this new paper is. We are all entitled to our judgments, but who the hell are you to be an ass. Young men are losing their lives every day and instead of sitting on a site giving our opinions how about we get together and come up with a resolution. Clearly, you have no life and no job as some of the same people you sit and criticize everyday on this site. When people can only engage in negativity, it speaks a lot on your character. As for your racist statements earlier this week....Not only are African American young men killing one another, several white young men are passing everyday from drug over doses or losing their lives to the prisons for killing their wives and family members for being unable to purchase drugs. It doesn’t make me feel good saying that because unlike you I care about my state. We all have issues and I pray to God that we can someday come together and come up with a resolution. 1 of the young men murdered was my student and I knew him from the same neighborhood that he hung out in. He was not a gang member...Gangs are rare these days. There are lots of misguided youth killing one another
And, it doesn't matter if I believe he's guilty or innocent, but I have the right to my opinion in this county just as he has a right to a trial. It appears you believe in the Constitution of the U.S. which gives the accused a right to a trial to determine his guilt of innocence, therefore, you should respect my right of freedom of speech afforded to me by the same Constitution.
Freedom of speech has worked for you. However freedom of speech does not mean freedom from ridicule of speech. You can say whatever you wish, but that does not mean the rest of the civilized world cannot look down upon your racist rants and ridicule you.
Yes, I stated my opinion, and I have that right. The fact that you deem it to be racist is your opinion and you have that right, But the facts are a black man killed two other black men witnessed by many. The newspaper is reporting the facts of the events that took place, but it appears you feel they are biased and are fabricating the story. You're in denial once again.
No one has argued with the facts. Except we do not have them all. We have vague police reports of eye witness testimony. All anyone has said is we shouldn't find someone guilty before his trial when all evidence is known. Everyone has scorned you for calling an entire race of people animals including the President of our United States. That is why everyone else commenting has called you a racist.
From the FBI: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/2011-national-gang-threat-assessment Current Gang-Related Trends and Crime Gang membership continues to expand throughout communities nationwide, as gangs evolve, adapt to new threats, and form new associations. Consequently, gang-related crime and violence is increasing as gangs employ violence and intimidation to control their territory and illicit operations. Many gangs have advanced beyond their traditional role as local retail drug distributors in large cities to become more organized, adaptable, and influential in large-scale drug trafficking. Gang members are migrating from urban areas to suburban and rural communities to recruit new members, expand their drug distribution territories, form new alliances, and collaborate with rival gangs and criminal organizations for profit and influence. Local neighborhood, hybrid and female gang membership is on the rise in many communities. Prison gang members, who exert control over many street gang members, often engage in crime and violence upon their return to the community. Gang members returning to the community from prison have an adverse and lasting impact on neighborhoods, which may experience notable increases in crime, violence, and drug trafficking.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/fractured-gangs-blamed-fo_n_1589148.html Chicago PD has since 2009 busted the heads of the centralized street gangs in Chicago leading to the splintering off of these groups. That is fact and is widely discussed among the police. That is why the violence has gone up because there are no big leaders anymore controlling the peace.
Clutche said all black people including the President are animals. That is what turned this into a race issue, not me calling him a racist for saying that.
Frank Barefield: 42, of 2215 Arthur Ave. in Joliet, was arrested by Joliet police and booked into the county jail Wednesday on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and telephone harrassment