Man who straw-purchased gun used to kill Chicago police Officer Ella French sentenced to 2 ½ years in federal prison
In a federal courtroom filled with Chicago police officers, Elizabeth French — mother of slain Officer Ella French — recounted for a judge Wednesday how she went to a hospital to view her daughter’s body.
“My heart shattered. ... My lovely baby girl is lying on a table, still and silent in death. ... I am sobbing, ‘My baby girl, my baby girl,’ ” French said. “I hug her. I hold her face. ... I want her to wake up and start talking to me.”
French’s emotional testimony came moments before an Indiana man who admitted to straw-purchasing the handgun later used to kill Ella French and critically wound her partner last year was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.
The sentence was half the five-year maximum Jamel Danzy could have received. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman noted Danzy is college educated and said he had no evidence Danzy knew where the gun he bought would wind up.
Even though many in the room were angry, Gettleman said the sentence had to be just.
“I feel the grief and I feel the anger that I witnessed in this proceeding today, but anger and grief basically lead to vengeance,” the judge said.
Moments earlier, Danzy also gave a statement to the judge, his right foot bounced as he spoke.
“I take full responsibility for what I have done,” he said. “This should have never happened.”
Danzy said he gives his condolences to the families of the victims.
“My family knows me as a hardworking individual who never gives up,” he said. “I have a good heart and don’t mean harm to anyone.”
Danzy has been working since he was 18 years old and has never been in trouble with the law before this, he said. He is currently working at a clinic with autistic children.
French, who had asked Gettleman for a maximum sentence, said she last spoke with her daughter right before her fateful shift, talking of vacation plans and telling her daughter to be careful and safe, and that she loved her.
“I am forever grateful that I got the chance to say something,” she told the judge.
She said later that day, she was taken into a small waiting room at the hospital, where she said, “The doctor begins with, ‘I’m so sorry,’ ... I didn’t hear anything until he got to the end and asked if I had any questions.”
French said she asked the doctor if her daughter had suffered, and the doctor said no. She said she’d hoped he wasn’t lying to her. She and her daughter will be buried together, she said.
“There will never be more birthdays, meals or trips together,” she said. “I will never again tell Ella how proud I am of her.”
After the sentence was read, the officers who filled the courtroom’s gallery gathered together on the 17th floor of the courthouse. Many hugged French.
Some discussed among themselves how disappointed they were with the sentencing decision.
Meanwhile, Danzy and his group made their way down the opposite elevators, and Danzy kept his jacket hood up and face mask on as they hurried out of the building and away from news cameras. He is expected to turn himself in at a later date.
Danzy, 30, pleaded guilty in July to one count of federal firearm conspiracy. Prosecutors had asked for the maximum term of five years in prison for Danzy, writing in a court filing 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.
“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’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.”
After the sentencing, Chicago police Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott said police respected the judge’s decision, but they “strongly disagree and are extremely disappointed.”
“We had an opportunity here today to send a strong message to those criminals who violate our gun laws,” McDermott said. “I believe we missed that opportunity. Until we start to hold people accountable for the crimes they committed, especially violation of our gun laws, we’ll never see an end to senseless gun violence in the city of Chicago.”
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, 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.
Investigators, meanwhile, traced both the .22-caliber Glock semi-automatic 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.
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.
The father of Yanez, who goes by the same name, said Elizabeth French asked him to speak to the media on her behalf because she couldn’t.
“What does it take to get a maximum sentence of five years for selling a weapon to a convicted felon that murdered a police officer and permanently disabled another officer?” he said. “I’m not just a father, I’m also a former police officer, and this sends a message back to all police officers and to all law enforcement out there that your life, even though it was taken, it’s not as valuable as the criteria of meeting five years of prison of someone selling a weapon to the offender that shoots and kills an officer.”
“A lot of BS,” he said.
The younger Yanez said guns are plaguing Chicago and a lot of gun violence starts with straw purchasers. He was upset with the sentence and believed Danzy should’ve had more than the maximum five years.
“It just sickens me and hurts my heart that I’ll forever be challenged,” he said. “We lost Ella. ... I lost my career, and I’ll never be the same.”
Yanez, his wife and other loved ones gathered in a hug and cried, as one woman whispered “I’m sorry” through tears. They then helped Yanez into a wheelchair and he patted his eyes with a tissue as they left the building.
