Attempted murder charges dropped against Joliet man in 2018 drug search case

Attempted murder charges were dropped against a man who pleaded guilty to shooting a Will County sheriff’s sergeant in the chest in 2018 as she he was conducting a search warrant for drugs at a Joliet residence.

On Tuesday, Kevin Waddell, 47, of Joliet, was sentenced by Judge Dan Rippy to serve 85% of a 14-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty on Jan. 3 to the charge of aggravated battery with a firearm, court records show. He was also credited with serving 1,555 days – or about four years – in jail since 2018, which puts his actual prison sentence closer to more than seven years.

The aggravated battery charge said Waddell knowingly and without legal justification caused bodily harm to a Will County sheriff’s sergeant on Oct. 16, 2018, by shooting him in the chest with a firearm.

The sergeant’s armored vest stopped the round from entering his body but, he was severely bruised, said sheriff spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer. The sergeant was off-duty for a short period of time and returned to full duty when he was cleared to do so, she said.

All other charges against Waddell were dropped against him, including two charges of attempted murder that accused him of intending to kill the same sergeant and a sheriff’s deputy who conducted the search warrant for drugs at Waddell’s residence in 2018.

When asked why those charges were dropped, Will County State’s Attorney spokeswoman Carole Cheney said the determination was made “based on a totality of the circumstances.” The state’s attorney’s office declined to elaborate further.

Waddell was represented by the Will County Public Defender’s Office. A call and email to Michelle Palaro, the office’s public information officer, was not immediately returned on Wednesday.

The sergeant who was the shooting victim was executing a search warrant on Oct. 16, 2018, for narcotics at residence in the 200 block of Richard Street in Joliet, according to a statement that was released at the time by the sheriff’s office. A sheriff’s deputy had suffered a graze wound on his arm from a bullet during that incident as well.

During the execution of that search warrant at Waddell’s home, Waddell had “blindly shot through the back door the police were entering,” according to the official statement of facts that was filed by prosecutors on Tuesday.

“One shot struck an officer in his vest. A second shot grazed the arm of the second victim,” the statement said.

Waddell was taken into custody and deputies recovered 10 grams of cocaine throughout the home, along with three handguns loaded with ammunition and 128 additional rounds, prosecutors said. An unloaded shot gun was found in an abandoned room at the residence.

Steven Johnson, 66, had also been arrested along with Waddell after the 2018 search warrant.

On Feb. 22, 2021, Johnson pleaded guilty to the charges of unlawful possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, as well as unlawful use of a .22-caliber pistol after he had been previously convicted of a drug offense in Cook County.

Rippy sentenced Johnson to serve 50% of a nine-year prison sentence for both offenses and credited him with 861 days already served while incarcerated. Johnson was paroled on March 3, 2022, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.