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9 months ago
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Damajae Mitchell (Chicago Police Department)CHICAGO — Even in a state where most prison sentences are automatically cut in half, Damajae Mitchell’s situation is an eye-opener.
Mitchell, 20, pleaded guilty late last month to carjacking and trying to rob a 69-year-old woman on the Northwest Side. When he committed the crime, officials said, he had another carjacking case pending in juvenile court.
After Mitchell entered his plea on June 26, Judge Timothy Joyce sentenced him to nine years in prison for vehicular hijacking of a senior citizen with a concurrent three-year sentence for aggravated battery of a peace officer.
In Illinois, those nine years would typically be reduced to 4½. But Mitchell went home without spending a single night in prison. We were intrigued. How did that happen?
The crime
The carjacking occurred on St. Patrick’s Day 2022 in the 7100 block of West Summerdale. Prosecutors said a 69-year-old woman was warming up her car when Mitchell and another man appeared outside her driver’s door around 6:10 a.m. Mitchell allegedly ordered her out at gunpoint.
Understandably scared, the woman exited the car, ran to a nearby home, and began ringing the doorbell for help.
Mitchell and the other man drove a short distance in the woman’s Chevy Equinox, but the car stopped. Mitchell got out to confront the woman at the home where she was trying to get help.
The home’s Ring doorbell was recording as Mitchell held a gun to the woman and demanded her key fob, prosecutors claimed. She couldn’t find it. Mitchell allegedly returned to the car and drove away.
Police tracked the car via GPS and arrested Mitchell after he crashed it into a viaduct column. He put the car in reverse as cops approached on foot, smashed into several parked cars, then got out and ran across the top of several vehicles before police caught him, prosecutors said.
Officers allegedly found an unloaded handgun on the rear driver’s side floorboard.
The sentence
So, how did Mitchell go from a nine-year prison sentence to serving no time in prison? We asked around. Of course, it was cut in half automatically by state law. Then he got credit for 833 days, just over two years, spent in the county jail. That leaves a little more than two years unaccounted for.
First, we checked with the Illinois Department of Corrections. Its website showed Mitchell arriving at Stateville Correctional Center on June 27, the day after he was sentenced, and going home the same day.
An IDOC spokesperson confirmed the website information was accurate: “The sentencing order awarded him 833 days of jail credit for time served and an additional 794 days of county program sentence credit.”
How did Mitchell earn 794 days of additional credit while in jail? Mostly by going to school.
“While in custody at [the Cook County jail], Mr. Mitchell was enrolled in York Alternative High School for a total of 752 days and was employed as an [inmate] worker for 30 days,” a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office explained. “Please note that the Sheriff’s Office has no role in the judge’s sentencing decisions. The findings in a sentencing order, whether to grant sentencing credit for time spent in programs, and how much credit to grant, are entirely decided by the judge.”
Mitchell will remain on mandatory supervised release, the Illinois equivalent of parole, until December 27, 2025. The outcome of his juvenile carjacking case is unknown because state law prevents those records from being released.
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