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player ready...A convicted felon from Aurora avoided another trip to prison when he received probation after pleading guilty to a September attack on a hospital security officer.
Sweed Strickland, 36, admitted to an aggravated battery charge for striking the officer in his head and body at Presence Mercy Medical Center in Aurora. Strickland threatened to kill himself at his home, which prompted Aurora police to respond and later have him transported to the hospital, prosecutors said during the hearing before Kane County Judge Linda Abrahamson.
As part of his agreement with prosecutors this week, which came less than a week before he was scheduled to stand trial in the case, Strickland received 30 months probation, credit for time served in Kane County Jail and was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation.
Strickland described himself as a carpenter who earned his high school equivalency degree and is currently paying support on three children. However, prosecutors noted an “extensive criminal history” that resulted in Strickland being sentenced to multiple prison terms.
Strickland twice has been charged with attempted murder, but later pleaded guilty to a lesser count both times. He was sentenced to four years in prison in for aggravated discharge of a firearm in connection to a 1999 shooting. Prosecutors accused him in 2012 of beating a man and then running him over with a car during a fight in an Aurora apartment complex parking lot. He eventually received a prison sentence for an aggravated battery conviction in the case, documents show.
Additionally, Strickland has been sent to prison on drug charges and for battering a pregnant woman.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News