Ashton teen charged with murder will be moved to adult detention center after his 18th birthday – Shaw Local

DIXON – The Ashton teenager charged with murdering his 16-year-old girlfriend will be transferred from a juvenile detention center to an adult facility on Dec. 18, when he turns 18, a Lee County judge ruled Monday.

David J. Sosa, 17, is being held at the Kane County Juvenile Detention Center on four counts of first-degree murder in the strangulation death of Jaedyn A. Hill. Sosa has pleaded not guilty, Lee County Assistant Public Defender Doug Lathe said.

On Monday, Sosa appeared via video call before Judge Jacquelyn D. Ackert for a status hearing.

Lee County Assistant Prosecutor Brian Brim told Ackert that Sosa will be charged as an adult but cannot be booked into the Lee County Jail, an adult detention facility, until he turns 18 unless he is able to get out of prison population to be separated. However, these restrictions will be lifted on December 18th, Sosa’s 18th birthday.

Brim then requested that Sosa be transported from the Kane County Juvenile Detention Center to the Lee County Jail on December 18th.

Without objection from Lathe, Sosa’s defense attorney, Ackert approved the transport order.

( Read more: Candlelight vigil for 16-year-old Ashton girl, police say she was killed by her boyfriend )

Sosa’s allegations stem from around 7 a.m. on Oct. 15, when the Lee County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Rochelle Police Department that a teenager, later identified as Sosa, had entered the department’s lobby. The teenager said he was involved in a murder and gave information.

Lee County deputies then went to 702 Richardson Ave., Apt. A, in Ashton to conduct a welfare check and discovered Hill’s body in the apartment, Lee County Sheriff Clay Whelan said.

According to court documents, Sosa walked 11 miles from Ashton to Rochelle to turn himself in to police. Officers found Hill’s body on the floor in the southeast bedroom of the two-bedroom apartment with a belt around her neck and a knife on the floor near her body, court documents said.

An autopsy performed at the Peoria County Coroner’s Office on the morning of October 16 preliminarily determined that Hill’s cause of death was strangulation.

Sosa and Hill, who turned 16 on Oct. 6, were in a relationship and lived in the apartment together, Whelan said.

The couple also has a child together who lives with relatives.

Sosa will next appear in court for a preliminary hearing on December 19 at 8:30 a.m.