Chicago police officers are expected to pack a federal courtroom Wednesday for the sentencing of an Indiana man who admitted to straw-purchasing the handgun later used to kill Officer Ella French and critically wound her partner during a traffic stop last year.
Prosecutors have asked for the maximum term of five years in prison for Jamel Danzy, writing in a court filing earlier this month that straw purchasers often put illegal firearms into the hands of “dangerous people” who drive much of the city’s seemingly endless violence.
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“Violent criminals in this city are growing increasingly dismissive of the law and the consequences of their actions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri wrote. “At this moment in this city, it is critically important that sentences for straw purchasing offenses reflect that these are serious offenses that cannot be tolerated.”
Danzy, 30, pleaded guilty in July to one count of federal firearm conspiracy. He is free on bond and has been ordered to appear for sentencing in person before U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who has set up an overflow courtroom in expectation of a large crowd of spectators.
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Danzy’s attorneys, Holly Blaine and James Vanzant, filed their sentencing memo under seal. But in a response to the government’s request, they indicated they will be seeking a term of not more than a year and a half, writing “there is no evidence in the record that Mr. Danzy was actually aware that the firearm he bought … would be used by a third party to kill anyone, much less a police officer.”
In advance of the sentencing, prosecutors last week submitted 80 pages of letters from current and Chicago police officers and department brass asking Gettleman to impose for a stiff sentence for Danzy and reflecting on both the loss of French and the life-altering injuries suffered by her partner, Officer Carlos Yanez, who is no longer on the force.
“We lost a hero, someone who fought for what was right and, from all accounts, treated everyone with care, dignity and respect,” Sgt. Sharon Boyd, whose team acts as liaisons for families of officers killed or injured in the line of duty, wrote about French. “The look on her mother’s face when the doctor came into the waiting area and the darkness that came over our city are indescribable.”
Another cop, who identified himself only as Officer Hernandez, said it broke his heart when he got the call that his “sister in blue” had been killed.
“Ella was fierce, humble, and so loving to anyone that was graced by her presence,” he wrote.
Other letters were submitted by Chicago Police Department Executive Director Tina Skahill, Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott, and a handful of district commanders from across the city. In her note, Skahill referenced a letter sent to Gettleman from Chicago police Superintendent David Brown, but Brown’s correspondence was not included in the court record.
French was killed and her partner was critically wounded in August 2021 after stopping a Honda SUV with expired tags in the West Englewood neighborhood. Two brothers who were in the Honda, Eric and Emonte Morgan, are charged with first-degree murder and a litany of other felonies stemming from the shooting and are awaiting trial.
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Investigators, meanwhile, traced both the .22-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol used to shoot French and the car the Morgan brothers were in to Danzy, who was charged in U.S. District Court a few days after the killing, court records show.
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Records showed that Danzy bought the gun in March 2021 from a licensed dealer in Hammond, where he claimed to be buying the weapon for himself. ATF agents tracked down Danzy at the restaurant where he worked, and he agreed to be interviewed on tape in an agent’s car in the parking lot.
Agents showed him the paperwork from the dealer, and at first he claimed to have bought the gun for himself. But after further questioning, he admitted he instead had bought it for his good friend, Eric Morgan, who had a felony record and could not buy a gun for himself, according to the plea.
Morgan went to Indiana to pick up the gun shortly after Danzy purchased it, according to prosecutors. The same gun was found in the yard where Morgan was arrested on the night of French’s killing, according to prosecutors.
In his plea agreement, Danzy also admitted to straw-purchasing a second firearm around the same time period for his cousin, who was also a felon and barred from possessing guns.
Danzy, who has no prior criminal record, obtained a master’s degree and had recently been working as a youth camp counselor and teaching assistant, records show.
