Joliet murder defendant grabbed inmate, pulled his head to door: cops

A Joliet man in jail facing murder charges has been charged with an offense against another inmate, court records show.

On July 5, Will County sheriff’s deputies were called to the Will County jail to take a report regarding Derrell Draper, 38, of the 800 block of Hollow Glen Court, according to sheriff spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer.

Draper previously was charged with the Elwood killing of a co-worker, Robert Bigger, 30, of Shorewood, who died Feb. 26.

After deputies spoke with jail staff, Draper and another inmate, law enforcement reported that an inmate had approached Draper’s cell to give him his breakfast tray. Hoffmeyer said that when both inmates spoke to each other through chuckhole, Draper grabbed the inmate by his shirt and forcefully pulled him towards the cell door causing the inmate to suffer a cut to his forehead.

Prosecutors accuse Draper of grabbing former inmate Timothy Shannon and pulling his head into a door, and charged Draper with aggravated battery.

Shannon was in jail from May 27 until July 8 after prosecutors petitioned to revoke his probation in a retail theft case in which he failed to appear in court for.

After Draper was jailed, he since has been charged with possessing a 5-inch aluminum shank June 27 and lewdly exposing himself to a female guard May 29.

In the latter incident, a guard reported that Draper had “exposed himself to the female correctional officer and then made several lewd comments towards her,” Hoffmeyer said. Draper’s attorney, Zaid Abdallah, filed a motion to withdraw from the case, and Draper failed to appear in court July 16 and 19.