Prosecutors drop case against man accused of shooting 6-month-old Chicago girl in 2013

Megan Crepeau, Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Cook County prosecutors last week quietly dropped all charges against a man accused of fatally shooting 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins as her father held the child in his arms.

Koman Willis, who had been in custody awaiting trial since 2013, walked free after a hearing Dec. 14 at which prosecutors threw out the case, records show.

“We’re very happy that he is now home with his family,” his attorney Jed Stone told the Chicago Tribune.

A statement from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said they decided not to bring him to trial “in light of significant developments that occurred after charges were filed which impacted the totality of the evidence.”

The office did not respond to a follow-up request for more specifics about the developments that led to the dismissal.

Stone, reached by phone Monday, said much of the evidence police developed against Willis was circumstantial if not outright misleading, and gave kudos to prosecutors for dropping the charges.

Willis, insisting on his innocence, earlier this year rejected a deal to plead guilty in exchange for a recommended sentence of a little more than 20 years, Stone said.

Jonylah was killed in March 2013. Her father, Jonathan Watkins, was in the front passenger seat of his van where he had been changing Jonylah’s diaper at the time of the shooting.

“Jonathan lifted Jonylah up to kiss her when the defendant approached and fired multiple gunshots into the van,” prosecutors said after Willis was charged.

A bullet entered Jonylah’s right shoulder and traveled down through her left thigh, officials said. She died the following day. Her father survived multiple gunshot wounds.

Jonylah’s death, along with that of teenage Hadiya Pendleton a few months before, became a marker of 2013's rampant city gun violence. Authorities had alleged Willis fired on Watkins as revenge, suspecting Watkins stole a video game system from Willis’ mothers home.

Willis was not charged until two months after the shooting.

Police said at the time that they identified Willis as a possible suspect early in the case, but they did not have enough evidence to charge him until detectives persuaded several witnesses to fully cooperate with the investigation.

Much of prosecutors’ initial summary of the evidence seemed to rely on witnesses who said Willis told them before the shooting that he would shoot whoever took his mother’s belongings, and other witnesses who said he admitted the shooting to them after the fact.

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