JOLIET, IL — On Friday morning, an angry Joliet criminal defense attorney Jeff Tomczak raised his voice before Will County Chief Judge Dan Kennedy, insisting that 19-year-old client Rasean Stokes has no criminal culpability in the Feb. 8, 2020 gunshot homicide along Joliet's Republic Avenue that ended the life of 17-year-old Jeremiah Frazier.
Tomczak implored Judge Kennedy reduce his incarcerated client's bail from $750,000 to $5,000, but the judge was not willing to make a decision on the bail at Friday's hearing.
Instead, Kennedy took the matter under advisement and put the case back on the court docket for Tuesday, Feb. 2. However, the judge did agree to dismiss both first-degree murder counts against Tomczak's client during Friday's hearing.
As relatives of his client were seated in Will County Courtroom 403, Tomczak was livid, pointing out that Stokes has already spent an entire year in the Will County Jail "on a bad murder charge."
His client had a clean record, no prior arrests, until Joliet police arrested Stokes as a co-conspirator in the homicide on Republic Avenue, according to Tomczak.
Around noon on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. Stokes was driving a car along Republic Avenue when a shootout occurred with the people in a car headed in the opposite direction.
Some officials at the Will County Courthouse refer to the shooting as the "Joliet Joust."
Stokes was arrested by Joliet police the next day, Feb. 8, and he has stayed in the Will County Jail ever since. According to Tomczak, one of Stokes' passengers, Jeremiah Gavin, is responsible for shooting Frazier in the head at the same time people in Frazier's car were returning the gunfire and shooting at the car Stokes was driving.
Joliet police captured Gavin a week later, on Feb. 15, 2020. Gavin, now 22, remains in the Will County Jail, with a $2 million bail facing first-degree murder charges.
The shooting happened within walking distance of St. Joe's hospital, which was where Frazier died two days later.
An occupant of the car with Frazier, Javontae Gray, 23, is also charged with aggravated discharge of a gun, reckless discharge of a gun, obstructing justice and obstructing a peace officer. Gray has remained in the Will County Jail since last Feb. 8, with bail at $750,000.
The proposed plea bargain for Tomczak's client, offered by the Will County State's Attorney Office, reveals that all of Stokes' criminal charges will be dropped if Stokes agrees to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of attempted obstruction of justice.
If Stokes agrees to that, the Joliet 19-year-old will be sentenced to 364 days in the Will County Jail, and he will be given credit for time served.
The attempted obstruction charge is for obstructing the prosecution of co-defendant Gavin, the prosecution's offer states. The court document states that Stokes drove Gavin away from the shooting scene, that he failed to immediately report the crime to authorities and that he communicated with others not to talk about the shooting.
According to the letter from assistant state's attorney Deborah Mills, Tomczak and his client have until the last week of February to accept the proposed plea bargain.
Because the two first-degree murder charges were dropped against Stokes on Friday, he now faces two remaining felonies: aggravated discharge of a gun plus concealing and aiding of a fugitive.
Tomczak said that his client has not agreed to sign the plea bargain.
Tomczak said he is still contemplating rejecting the plea offer and leaving the Will County State's Attorney Office no alternative but to go to trial against his client.
"They can't prove aggravated discharge. They can't prove anything," Tomczak argued, referring to Will County Assistant State's Attorney Deborah Mills and the Joliet Police Department investigations unit.
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