A reputed North Chicago street gang member with a long criminal history will spend about 11 years in prison following a sentencing hearing on weapons charges Thursday afternoon.
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Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes sentenced Willie Wise, 37, to 23 years in prison for armed violence and 14 years in prison for possession of weapons by a felon, convictions resulting from a jury trial in June.
Wise was arrested in October 2015 after he was found with a gun in his waistband at a North Chicago bar where he worked at a bouncer, and a search of his apartment turned up both drugs and weapons, including assault rifles, according to trial testimony.
Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Hoffert said Wise’s sentences will run concurrently and at 50 percent, so 23 years is his concurrent sentence, and with credit for 280 days in Lake County Jail, he should spend about 11 years in prison.
He had faced a maximum of 30 years in prison at 50 percent.
The jury in Wise’s trial found him guilty of armed violence, unlawful possession of weapons by a felon and possession of heroin with intent to deliver. The drug charge was merged with the armed violence charge, Hoffert said.
Hoffert had asked for a sentence in the upper part of Wise’s 21- to 30-year sentencing range, while defense attorney Evan Atwood had requested a sentence in the 15-year range.
According to police and testimony during Wise’s trial, he was arrested last fall after being found with a gun in his waistband at a bar where he worked, which officers with the Lake County Gang Task Force testified is believed by local law enforcement to be a hangout for a particular street gang.
A subsequent search of an apartment where he sometimes stayed above the bar turned up several semi-automatic handguns, two assault rifles and heroin packaged for individual sale, Hoffert said during the trial.
Atwood had argued that the apartment in question was leased to Wise and that the state had not proven that the guns and drugs found there belonged to him.
During the trial, jurors saw videotape of Wise’s questioning by gang task force investigators in which he admitted the guns and drugs belonged to him after initially denying that they did.
According to Lake County Circuit Court records, Wise, described by police as a documented gang member, pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in 1999 related to a fatal 1998 crash in which he was the driver, and he has drug and weapons convictions since then, as well as a DUI conviction, numerous traffic citations and an arrest for disorderly conduct.
Wise has been held in the Lake County Jail and in lieu of $500,000 bail since his arrest last fall.
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