A judge sentences Denzal Stewart to 3 years and 9 months for conspiracy to commit arson and civil disorder. Stewart and two others set fire to a CTA van on State Street.
By David Struett
Nov 21, 2022, 5:20pm CST
Denzal Stewart admitted setting fire to a CTA van during riots downtown on May 30, 2020.
A federal judge handed down the longest prison sentence yet for torching a car in Chicago during the 2020 rioting following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Judge Gary Feinerman on Monday sentenced Denzal Stewart to 3 years and 9 months for conspiracy to commit arson and civil disorder.
It’s a longer sentence than the nearly 3 years given to Timothy O’Donnell, who torched a police vehicle while wearing a Joker mask; and the 3 years’ probation given to Jacob Fagundo, a School of the Art Institute student who torched another police car during the riots.
Stewart had pleaded guilty to setting a CTA van on fire on May 30, 2020, on State Street just north of Van Buren.
Before he was sentenced, Stewart told the judge he was a changed man.
“I know it may sound crazy, but I’m grateful for this incarceration making me the man I am today,” he said in an orange jumpsuit at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in downtown Chicago.
The 26-year-old said he wanted a short sentence so he could take care of his five children, the youngest of whom is a year old.
The judge said he believed Stewart was telling the truth and took his remorseful attitude into account when issuing a sentence below the 5 to 7 years suggested by federal guidelines. Prosecutors asked for 6 years.
“I think he’s trying to turn the page,” Feinerman said.
Federal prosecutors say this picture depicts Lamar Taylor and Denzal Stewart outside a CTA van that would soon be engulfed in flames.
But he said Stewart’s lengthy criminal history needed to be addressed. Stewart had served time for residential burglary, multiple counts of possession of a stolen vehicle, resisting police and escape.
The judge said the sentence must also send a message to the community “at large that they are not to commit arson and civil disorder” during what he said was a “precarious moment in our city and country.”
“What we ended up having is chaos instead of orderly protest,” Feinerman said. “At the time, we didn’t resemble the United States. We looked like a country we watch on TV in horror and pity.”
Stewart and two co-defendants went downtown to “steal and wreak havoc” while thousands of others peacefully protested downtown, Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry III said in his sentencing memo.
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