Joliet murder defendant won past jail releases with cash bail

A Joliet man charged in June with first-degree murder during his curfew previously was released from jail with money posted by his family in cases involving charges of attempted murder and other violent crimes.

John Roy Hernandez Jr., 22, also had been under court-ordered electronic monitoring for more than a year before his arrest in the recent first-degree murder case.

In that case, prosecutors alleged that Hernandez and a fellow gang affiliate, Elian Raya, 21, of Joliet, killed Fernando Contreras, 23, and wounded two other men in the June 1 shooting.

Both men have been in jail since their arrests last month. Their next court hearing is set for July 8, where prosecutors plan to request that the two men stay in jail.

The last time Hernandez was released from the Will County jail was April 8, 2023. A family member posted $7,500 for his bail, court records show. That was about five months before the elimination of cash bail under a provision of the SAFE-T Act called the Pretrial Fairness Act.

At the time, Hernandez was facing charges of attempted murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm and aggravated battery. Those offenses are considered eligible for detention under the Pretrial Fairness Act.

The SAFE-T Act provision that would have given prosecutors the option of requesting Hernandez to stay in jail with no cash bail was set to begin Jan. 1, 2023, but the provision was stalled for months by an unsuccessful legal challenge from Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow and numerous other prosecutors.

When Hernandez was released from jail April 8, 2023, he was under an electronic monitoring order that required him to remain on home confinement between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., according to a court order signed by Will County Judge Carmen Goodman. The one exception was emergency medical services.

The June 1 shooting that led to Contreras’ death was reported shortly after 11 p.m. outside a residence in the 400 block of Krakar Avenue. The location is about 3 miles away from Hernandez’s address on Campbell Street.

About 20 minutes before the shooting, phone and video evidence revealed that Hernandez and Raya were at a gas station, according to a court filing from prosecutors. In the minutes leading up to the shooting, the two men allegedly circled the Krakar Avenue residence twice in a vehicle, prosecutors said.

Hernandez was wearing an ankle-monitoring device at the time of his arrest June 15, Joliet police Sgt. Dwayne English said.

Neither Glasgow’s office nor the Illinois Office of Statewide Pretrial Services responded to questions regarding whether Hernandez’s device triggered any alert to police at the time of the June 1 shooting. The Office of Statewide Pretrial Services handles GPS monitoring for Will County.

English said the Joliet Police Department does not control or monitor any devices placed on people who are ordered by a judge to wear them. The Will County Sheriff’s Office has nothing to do with the electronic monitoring system, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer said.

Hernandez is among more than 300 defendants in Will County who are part of the GPS program handled by the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services, said Cara LeFevour Smith, director of the office. Smith previously served as a Cook County judge.

On Feb. 7, Hernandez transitioned from the Will County Probation Department’s caseload to their office’s GPS program, Smith said.

Smith declined to answer further questions regarding Hernandez. She cited a Judicial Code of Conduct rule that she said requires their office to not comment on pending court matters.

The Office of Statewide Pretrial Services has a 24/7 operations center that “receives, tracks and attempts to resolve all alerts and alarms received in connection with its electronically monitored population,” according to Smith’s statement on the Illinois Courts website.

In the past four years, Hernandez was charged in Will County with a shooting in 2020 and two more shootings in 2022. One of the two shootings in 2022 led to a charge of attempted murder.

He also was charged in 2022 with aggravated battery and burglary.

Hernandez’s bonds ranged from $50,000 to $1 million in those cases.

Some of his money bonds were reduced by Goodman at the request of Hernandez’s attorney, Chuck Bretz, court records show. Bretz argued that the amount of money set for his client’s bonds were oppressive under state law, as well as excessive under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Hernandez’s family members posted the reduced money bonds for his jail releases in 2022 and 2023, court records show.

Goodman had not placed Hernandez under electronic monitoring when he was released from jail twice in 2022. That includes after he had been charged with attempted murder June 30, 2022, court and jail records show.

Goodman ordered electronic monitoring for Hernandez on March 20, 2023. She set Hernandez’s bond at $225,000 but allowed the money that Hernandez’s family had already posted to cover that amount.

That put Hernandez’s actual bond at $75,000, of which only 10% (or $7,500) was needed for his jail release on April 8, 2023.

Goodman did not order Raya to be placed on electronic monitoring after she allowed a reduction of his $200,000 bond in a case where he was charged with a 2021 shooting.

After Raya was charged with Contreras’ murder, Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Tricia McKenna said in a June 25 court filing that Raya’s bond conditions were “insufficient to prevent this offense.”

McKenna argued that it was clear there were no conditions that could protect the community from Raya except incarceration.