Dixon man enters not guilty plea to felony armed violence, multiple weapons violations

A Dixon man pleaded not guilty to six charges in connection with gunshots reported Monday, July 21, near Tilton Park Drive and Institute Boulevard in Dixon.

Kairyn Lottman, 18, is charged in Lee County with four felonies: armed violence, unlawful possession of a firearm without the required firearm owner’s identification card, possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number and reckless discharge of a firearm. He’s also charged with two misdemeanors: unlawful carrying/possession of a firearm and resisting a peace officer, according to court documents.

Lottman was arrested Monday and is being held in the Lee County Jail. He appeared before Lee County Judge Jacquelyn Ackert via video call Wednesday, when he waived his right to a preliminary hearing and entered a plea of not guilty through Public Defender Robert J. Thompson.

A preliminary hearing is where a judge determines if there is enough evidence to believe that a crime was committed by the accused.

Ackert ordered for Lottman’s continued detention and set a pretrial conference hearing for 8:30 a.m. July 31.

Here’s what we know

Around 4:25 a.m. Monday, July 21, two Tilton Park Drive residents reported hearing shots fired in a field behind their houses. Another resident of Institute Boulevard called and said they’d “been hearing gunshots since 4:15 a.m. and reported a male was shooting a rapid fire weapon,” according to the Dixon Police Department’s probable cause affidavit.

Dixon police officer Cassandra Dempsey and another officer were dispatched to the scene and saw three individuals walking out of the woods toward their squad car at the intersection of Tilton Park Drive and Institute Boulevard, according to the affidavit.

One of those individuals, later identified as Lottman, was observed to have “a black sling style bag across his chest” and took off running after being given “verbal commands” to walk over and speak with the officers, according to the affidavit.

That bag was not recovered by the police. Lottman was taken into custody a short time after a caller reported to Lee County Dispatch that they saw a male walking in the 1400 block of Tilton Park Drive without a shirt, according to the affidavit.

The other two individuals - a male minor and a 19-year-old woman - were taken to the Dixon Police Department to speak with detectives, according to the affidavit.

In the woman’s interview she told police that she saw Lottman about 2 a.m. that morning and that he was bloody and his shoulder was dislocated. Lottman told her he got in a fight with the male minor, that he needed to go for a walk to clear his head and that “he wasn’t sure if he wanted to live or not,” according to the affidavit.

She said Lottman walked by himself down the path that extends from Institute Boulevard, near where police initially spotted the group upon arriving at the scene. She said that about 20 minutes later she heard gunshots and saw flashes down the path, according to the affidavit.

Lottman denied shooting a gun and did not provide officers with any details of the night’s events, according to the affidavit.

Dixon police and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office used their K-9 units to search the area and located 17 spent shell casings from a .45-caliber handgun along the path, according to the affidavit.

Officers recovered a weapon after a Tilton Park Drive resident contacted police about 11:20 a.m. and said a black bag was wedged underneath their deck’s steps. Inside, officers found a black .45-caliber, semi-automatic Springfield XD with a loaded magazine, a “clearly and obviously defaced” serial number and no rounds in the chamber, according to the affidavit.

Also found in the bag were three bags with a white substance, which tested positive for the presence of cocaine, according to the affidavit.