Chicago man gets 10-year split term for shooting ex-girlfriend in plea

Chicago Tribune

4 days ago

When Desmond Webb filed a motion to withdraw from a plea deal for shooting his ex-girlfriend in the face, Judge Gina Jones said Tuesday she concluded he just wanted to back out.
He had three months between when it was filed on Halloween to Jan. 30 to think about it. He had already appeared in court and swore under oath that the plea was accurate. He filed the motion Jan. 29.
'I think that's what happened,' Jones told Webb. 'Maybe I can beat these cases.'
That's legally 'not a reason' to quash a plea, she said. 'It's called buyer's remorse.'
Webb, 38, of Chicago, signed a plea deal Oct. 31 for aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony. It called for a 10-year cap.
Jones denied his bid to throw out the plea Tuesday. She sentenced him to eight years in prison, and two years in Lake County Community Corrections. One of those final years is eligible for home detention.
He is also ordered to finish an anger management course and batterer's intervention.
Court records allege he stalked the woman, then shot her just below her left eye on Oct. 27, 2022 as she got out of a black Audi in the alley on the 5600 block of Hohman Avenue in Hammond near a beauty school where she worked. Her child and new boyfriend were also in the car. They were not physically hurt.
The shooting left her permanently disfigured — with an artificial eye.
Since Webb appeared in court last fall, the case was in 'limbo,' his new lawyer Joe Roberts, who picked up the case in January, said in court.
Ultimately, Webb blamed his first lawyer Lakeisha Murdaugh, who undertook complex negotiations for the plea deal, saying he had ineffective counsel and had contacted the state's disciplinary commission for attorneys. His client's understanding was that he would have to take the plea deal, or restart alone.
'He felt like he was backed into a corner,' Roberts said.
Later in the hearing, Deputy Prosecutor Judy Massa defended Murdaugh, saying it was documented that their relationship became strained and she did her due diligence as his lawyer.
Massa noted Murdaugh said in court that she reviewed the plea agreement with Webb, his mother and siblings, prepared a memorandum and made sure he knew the risks of going to trial.
It was a 'difficult case to navigate with him,' Massa said. 'It sounds like what he's trying to do now is to get a better plea offer.'
A trial was not ideal for the victim, the prosecutor said. She 'never wants to see him' and has since moved out-of-state.
Jones said lawyers told her the plea was a compromise, after 'evidentiary issues,' 'heavy negotiations,' and the fact that Webb was on bond during the shooting.
Massa said the former couple dated on-and-off for eight years and the case was a 'textbook version of domestic violence.' Webb fired nine shots, luckily missing her new boyfriend and the child. She asked for 10 years.
'He was totally out of control,' she said, 'and tried to kill her.'
Two other cases for stalking and invasion of privacy involved the same woman and would be dismissed with the plea, she noted.
Roberts said various factors, including an Illinois warrant, made him eligible for only prison or probation. Webb trained as a chef and was 'eager to return to his profession.'
Imprisonment would harm his kids, the lawyer said.
Webb spoke briefly, saying the court 'did the best' they could with the facts and he just wanted to get back to his family.
'I just hate' that no one in the court system deterred you from getting to this point, Jones said. A 'light bulb' should have gone off before you 'escalated' to the shooting.
Near the end of the hearing, Webb said that the woman came to see him even as there was a no-contact order, including one time when he was hospitalized. I get that, Jones told him, but you had a legal responsibility to stay away from her.
Roberts said Webb would 'sleep on' whether he would appeal.