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Straw purchaser of gun used to kill Officer Ella French set to be sentenced Wednesday
Pallbearers carry the casket of Chicago Police Officer Ella French to the hearse after her funeral at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, on Aug. 19, 2021.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file
The so-called straw purchaser of the gun used to kill Chicago Police Officer Ella French and seriously wound her partner is set to be sentenced Wednesday by a federal judge.
Prosecutors earlier this month asked U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman to give the maximum five-year prison sentence to Jamel Danzy of Indiana, the only person convicted so far in connection with French’s death.
The Chicago Police Department also delivered 80 pages of letters to the judge asking him to hand down the toughest sentence. Danzy’s sentencing is expected to draw a large police presence to the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
Related Feds seek 5 years in prison for man who bought gun used to kill Chicago Police Officer Ella French ‘Fierce, humble and so loving’ — Chicago police remember Ella French in letters urging max sentence for man who bought gunOfficers Carlos Yanez, Joshua Blas and French stopped a Honda CR-V driven by Eric Morgan on Aug. 7, 2021, around 63rd Street and Bell Avenue. Morgan’s brother, Emonte, was also in the car along with a gun purchased by Danzy, prosecutors said.
During that stop, Emonte Morgan opened fire with the gun, killing French and shooting Yanez in the head multiple times, according to the feds. Eric Morgan then allegedly fled with the .22-caliber pistol and still had it when he was later arrested.
A litany of felonies has been filed in state court against the Morgans, including murder charges against Emonte Morgan. The brothers have pleaded not guilty.
An officer wore this button in honor of slain Officer Ella French during her Aug. 19, 2021, funeral at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel.
Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times file
However, Danzy pleaded guilty this summer to a conspiracy to commit federal firearm offenses. At the time, he admitted that Eric Morgan had asked him to buy a gun in March 2021. He agreed to do so, even though he knew Eric Morgan was a convicted felon.
Danzy bought the pistol, a Glock Model 44, from a federally licensed firearms dealer in Hammond, Indiana. He also filled out a form falsely certifying that he was buying the gun for himself.
But Danzy knew that Eric Morgan took the gun back and forth between Danzy’s home in Hammond and Chicago. He last saw the gun under his bed a few days before French’s death, prosecutors said.
Danzy also admitted in July that he purchased another semiautomatic pistol for his cousin, who was also a convicted felon.
The gun used to kill Officer Ella French.
U.S. District Court records
French’s death followed a visit by Attorney General Merrick Garland to Chicago to launch an initiative meant to curb gun violence, in part, by targeting straw purchasers.
Such cases present special challenges to prosecutors. They have been characterized as “paperwork” crimes that simply involve lying on a form, as Danzy did. Straw purchasers also have clean criminal records, which help them buy firearms but can also aid them at sentencing.
Prosecutors argue that straw purchasers essentially weaponize their clean records.