The teen convicted in the 2023 murder of a Rockridge High School student has escaped from prison.
According to a press release from the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Department, Johnell Lamont Smith III was participating in an inmate program and escaped in Chicago on Wednesday. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
Smith was charged in April 2023 with one count of home invasion and two counts of first-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Danny Taylor of Milan. Following a jury trial, Smith was found guilty on all three counts on April 4, 2025. He was sentenced to 35 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Smith had been held in the Illinois Youth Center in Harrisburg in the custody of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.