Whiteside County judge rejects plea deal in 2021 Rock Falls shooting case

MORRISON – A Whiteside County judge Wednesday rejected the terms of a plea deal that had been reached in a 2021 Rock Falls shooting case.

Alexander Vinson-Ishmon, 24, was ready to plead guilty Wednesday afternoon to one count of aggravated battery with a firearm, which would have sent him to prison for up to six years and would be served concurrently with his sentence for a Lee County weapons case filed just days after the March 21, 2021, shooting.

However, Whiteside County Circuit Court Judge James Heuerman refused to accept the terms of the plea agreement in the Rock Falls case based on the danger the fired shots posed to others in the area at the time.

According to the charging document, the events began to unfold shortly before 6:30 a.m. March 21, 2021, when a Rock Falls police officer was driving in the 600 block of West Second Street and saw a man who appeared to be trying to break into a home.

The officer went to the house and, while the man was gone, she noted damage to two windows and a door. She also found a phone lying on the ground nearby, according to the document.

Vinson-Ishmon lived at the residence, according to the document.

About 7:30 a.m. the same day, Rock Falls police officers responded to the 300 block of Sixth Avenue, where they found evidence of a shooting in the alley between Sixth and Seventh avenues and a home struck by at least one bullet, according to the document.

About that same time, a 21-year-old man who lived in the area and had been shot – and whose phone was the one found by the Rock Falls officer next to the home with the broken windows and door – walked into the police department to report the incident. He was taken to CGH Medical Center for treatment of superficial gunshot wounds, according to the document.

Rock Falls police then issued an arrest warrant for Vinson-Ishmon for aggravated discharge of a firearm in connection with the man’s wounds. Vinson-Ishmon was taken into custody in Dixon three days after the shooting.

According to a Dixon Police Department news release issued at the time, Dixon police received information from the Rock Falls Police Department that Vinson-Ishmon was wanted on a valid arrest warrant regarding the Rock Falls shooting.

Dixon officers checked numerous locations in Dixon and subsequently found Vinson-Ishmon’s vehicle at a residence in the 800 block of East Graham Street, police said. They conducted surveillance of the residence.

About 4:40 p.m. March 24, 2021, surveillance officers observed Vinson-Ishmon exit a residence in the 800 block of East Graham Street and enter a vehicle parked at that location. Police conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle in the 800 block of East Graham Street, and Vinson-Ishmon was taken into custody without incident.

During a search of the vehicle, officers found a loaded handgun, a large amount of U.S. currency and cannabis, according to the release, and a check of the firearm’s serial number revealed that the firearm was reported stolen from a residence in Lee County in early 2020.

Vinson-Ishmon was turned over to the Lee County Jail and charged with armed violence, possession of a stolen firearm, unlawful possession with intent to deliver 30 to 500 grams of cannabis, possession of a firearm without a requisite firearm owner’s identification card, possession of ammunition without a requisite FOID card, and unlawful possession of cannabis, according to the release.

He pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen firearm in the Lee County case in November 2023 and was sentenced in January 2024 to up to seven years in prison, according to court records.

The plea agreement on the table Wednesday in Whiteside County would have led to immediate sentencing for the March 21, 2021, shooting. That six-year prison term would have run concurrently with the Lee County sentencing.

But Heuerman said Wednesday that he would not accept the Whiteside County plea agreement because although the victim’s wounds were superficial, gunfire that damaged the door of a nearby house indicated others had faced danger and a risk of injury.

“People should be able to feel safe in their own homes,” Heuerman said.

The case now will head toward a 402 conference set for April 29 in Whiteside County. A 402 conference is an open, informal process where attorneys and a judge discuss relevant information regarding the case and a potential outcome. Defendants are not present during the conference but must agree to waive their presence before it is held.

A pretrial conference is set for 1:30 p.m. May 28, with a jury trial to potentially begin at 8:30 a.m. June 10 in Whiteside County Circuit Court.