First District Appellate Court Reverses One Aggravated Unlawful Use of Weapon Count and Affirms the Others

In this juvenile delinquency case, the defendant was arrested on the street by Chicago Police officers while in possession of a gun. The State charged him with 2 counts of Aggravated Unlawful use of a Weapon, one based on the lack of a FOID card and one based on the fact that he’s under 21. The unlawful possession of a firearm count was also based on his age (under 18).

The Appellate Court reversed the first count because the State proved that the minor did not give the police a FOID card, not that he didn’t have one.

As far as the defendant’s argument that the State did not prove age, the appellate court decided it was permissible to use the questioning of the minor at the onset of the case when juvenile jurisdiction was established as well as the minor’s testimony at the motion to suppress.

The appellate court stated that one cannot seek the protections of the Juvenile Court Act while at the same time contesting whether the State had proven that the defendant was under 18.

Having affirmed the convictions for Counts 2 and 3, the appellate court vacated the conviction on Count 3 under principles of “one act, one crime.”

The case is In Re Gabriel W.

http://www.illinoiscourts.gov/Opinions/AppellateCourt/2017/1stDistrict/1172120.pdf

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