The Oak Park and River Forest High School student who was found with a loaded handgun outside the school in May and charged with five felonies has agreed to a plea deal which will keep him out of jail if he stays out of trouble for the next two years and completes community service requirements.
“It’s going to be two years probation,” said Oak Park attorney Tom Benno who is representing 18 year old Keyon Robinson.
Benno said Robinson will plead guilty to one felony charge of unlawful possession of a firearm but the conviction will be vacated if he fulfills all the requirements of the plea deal.
“It’s a deferred conviction which means if he meets the terms of probation, and this is different, they have him do all sorts of rehab and community service and that stuff,” Benno said. “When he comes back in two years it’s stricken like it never happened.”
The Cook County State Attorney’s Office did not confirm the existence of the plea deal saying in an email that they do not comment on pending litigation. But Benno told Wednesday Journal that the State’s Attorney and the judge have agreed to the deal. Benno said he expects that Robinson will plead under the terms of the deal that he outlined at his next court date on Sept.16.
“We would have done it the other day but it’s always better just to give it a few months just to make sure that everybody settles in, he doesn’t do it again, and also if you do it too soon the public gets upset” Benno said. “They don’t understand it.”
Robinson was initially charged with more serious crimes of possession of a weapon on school grounds which could have resulted in a sentence of up to 10 years.
Robinson graduated from OPRF this summer after taking classes remotely to complete his remaining course work.
Benno said Robinson was carrying a gun in his backpack outside of school on May 3 for self-defense because he had been threatened by extended family members who were jealous that he was about to graduate from high school.
“He was getting threats from family members who never graduated high school,” Benno said.
Benno said the gun was deep in Robinson’s backpack and not easily accessible.
“It wasn’t an offensive weapon,” Benno said. “He couldn’t have gotten it fast.”
Robinson has no prior convictions, but Oak Park police said at the time of his arrest that he had an outstanding warrant from DuPage County for driving on a suspended license.
“This is really an anomaly; this is one of the sweetest kids,” Benno said.
OPRF spokeswoman Karin Sullivan said she couldn’t comment on whether Robinson had a disciplinary record at OPRF.
Right after his arrest on May 3 Robinson’s bond was set at $500,000 but was later reduced to a $50,000 unsecured bond, known as an I bond, which did not require any money to be put up. Benno said Robinson spent about five weeks at Cook County Jail before he was released on the reduced bond. Robinson was initially released with electronic and GPS monitoring, but that requirement was dropped at a court hearing on Aug. 10 by Cook County Circuit Judge Geary Kull. At that hearing Kull placed Robinson on a 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. curfew to allow him to work at Portillo’s.
