Madeline Buckley

2 days ago | chicagotribune.com | Madeline Buckley |Caroline Kubzansky

On March 12, 2024, Laterria Smith’s phone buzzed with a text that was, according to Cook County prosecutors, like “something out of a horror movie.”It was an automated message from the Illinois Department of Corrections informing her that the man who had terrorized her since high school would be released from prison shortly after threatening her life, Cook County prosecutors said Monday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

5 days ago | chicagotribune.com | Madeline Buckley

A little over a year ago, Chicago was stunned by the stabbing death of 11-year-old Jayden Perkins in a case that drew scrutiny over safeguards meant to protect domestic violence victims. The details were shocking, even for a city that regularly experiences violence: Jayden was killed as he tried to protect his pregnant mother from a man with a documented history of abusing her and another woman just a day after he was released from prison, police and prosecutors alleged.

1 week ago | chicagotribune.com | Madeline Buckley

Last year, 29-year-old Kimberly Hall was arrested at O’Hare International Airport with 21 bundles of cocaine after traveling from Mexico, according to court records, in a case that was splashed across her hometown British tabloids. Now, as the United Kingdom citizen faces felony drug charges, she is entangled in an immigration-related fight with the state’s attorney’s office as she seeks release from the Cook County Jail while awaiting trial.

1 week ago | chicagotribune.com | Madeline Buckley

Authorities are searching for a man who on Monday escaped from the Leighton Criminal Court Building shortly after a judge ordered him detained while awaiting trial, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. Richard Donta J. Cotton, 32, appeared before Judge William Gamboney around 12:30 p.m. at the courthouse on multiple gun felony charges, according to court records.

1 week ago | chicagotribune.com | Madeline Buckley

Around 8 p.m. at the notorious Stateville prison, Jimmy Soto was on the phone trying to get information about his court appearance the next day. He was convicted of murder in 1982, but after decades of fighting, his appeal had momentum. Tomorrow could be the day he’d been waiting for. Or it could be another continuance. And anyone familiar with the ebb and flow of the hectic courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue would not rule out yet another delay.