Lockport Township felony gun case dropped by prosecutors after arrest quashed

A felony gun case fell apart after a Will County judge ruled a sheriff’s deputy unlawfully searched a vehicle based on the smell of marijuana that was never collected or tested.

On March 13, prosecutors dropped their case against Daemontae Hunter, 28, of Lockport Township, following a ruling from Judge Amy Christiansen to quash Hunter’s arrest.

Hunter was jailed on Aug. 26 on charges accusing him of unlawfully possessing a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic handgun that was found underneath his passenger seat in a vehicle.

Hunter had been previously convicted of possessing an AK-47 rifle.

Hunter’s attorneys with Joliet law firm King and Bondi successfully challenged the legality of the traffic stop and vehicle search that led to his arrest.

At a Jan. 22 pretrial hearing, Deputy Matthew Silverstein testified he pulled over a vehicle driven by a woman on the morning of Aug. 26, 2024, because she was driving fast, according to a court transcript.

Silverstein said he did not measure the vehicle’s speed with a radar.

During the traffic stop, Silverstein said he saw Hunter smoking a Black and Mild cigar, which are usually sold at gas stations.

Silverstein said he decided to search the vehicle because he smelled “suspect” marijuana.

Silverstein said he never collected or tested the marijuana, which he claimed was a “shake.” He described a “shake” as a small amount of green crumbs and he suggested they were “embedded in carpet fibers.”

Silverstein said he didn’t collect the residue because he believed there wasn’t enough to test. He said he didn’t pick up the crumbs and put them into a pile or on a scale.

Christiansen quashed Hunter’s arrest after ruling it was “unlikely that the [marijuana] smell would have been identifiable” during the traffic stop.

During the pendency of Hunter’s case, he spent about five months in jail as a pretrial detainee, or someone who has not been convicted of the charges filed against them.

Three inmates attacked Hunter while he was in jail and he was hospitalized for injuries he suffered in the incident, according to the Will County Sheriff’s Office.