Pleasant Prairie Stalker Who Threatened to Kill Pregnant Woman Gets 6.5 Years

A Kenosha County judge has sentenced a 35-year-old Illinois man to six-and-a-half years in prison for a December 2022 rampage in which he repeatedly threatened to kill a pregnant woman and then led Pleasant Prairie police on a 120 mph chase that crossed into Illinois. Devin Sawyers-Dussault pleaded guilty in April to fleeing police and second-degree recklessly endangering safety, with fourteen other charges, including stalking, dismissed as part of a plea deal.

According to FOX6 News Milwaukee, which cited the Kenosha County District Attorney's Office and Wisconsin circuit court records, Sawyers-Dussault was wanted for repeatedly trying to kill the pregnant woman and had sent her threatening texts before the chase began. In one message cited in the case, he told her, “I'm going to kill you this time,” and in another he warned, “Before I get caught, you'll be dead.” Pleasant Prairie police officers attempted to pull him over near 39th Avenue and 85th Street, and he refused to stop, according to the station's report.

A Chase That Stretched Into Illinois

The pursuit reached speeds of 120 miles per hour and crossed from Wisconsin into Lake County, Illinois, per the same account. During the chase, Sawyers-Dussault tried to hit a police squad car, and officers ultimately used stop sticks to bring his vehicle to a halt. He then ran off on foot after the vehicle stopped, and police found methamphetamine, MDMA, and ammunition inside the car, the article notes.

The scale of the manhunt that followed was significant. A multi-jurisdictional response involving officers, K-9 units, and drones from six agencies across Wisconsin and Illinois — including Pleasant Prairie, Kenosha County, Lake County, Waukegan, Gurnee, and Zion — joined the search, according to the Lake and McHenry County Scanner. The initial foot search in Wadsworth lasted nearly three hours before it was suspended, and police arrested Sawyers-Dussault the next day, on December 31, 2022, in Zion, Illinois, after officers surrounded a home where he was hiding and a relative convinced him to come out following his initial refusal to surrender.

Taunts, Text Messages and a Troubling History

While evading police, Sawyers-Dussault taunted the Pleasant Prairie Police Department on Facebook, commenting under his own wanted posting that he intended to sue the department and mocking officers' use of stop sticks, according to Kenosha County Eye. Prosecutors presented those social media comments during court bail hearings, along with additional text messages in which Sawyers-Dussault told the victim he “could've killed” her before and said he had been looking for her all night.

Court records show this was not his first brush with the justice system involving the same alleged pattern of violence. Sawyers-Dussault had been charged in Kenosha County in July 2022 with 26 counts, including felony strangulation, burglary, and domestic battery, but was released on a no-cash signature bond that August after initially being held on $10,000 cash bail, Kenosha County Eye reported. That release preceded the December 2022 stalking allegations and chase by just a few months.

Bail, Extradition and the Path to Sentencing

After his extradition to Wisconsin in January 2023, a Kenosha County court commissioner set his bail at $120,000 cash, citing concerns over public safety and his history of fleeing — a higher figure than the $95,000 cash bail prosecutors had requested, per Kenosha County Eye. Dashcam footage from the pursuit, reviewed by FOX6, showed Sawyers-Dussault turning his vehicle around on U.S. Route 41 in Lake County and driving at high speed into oncoming traffic, a maneuver officers said sharply escalated the danger to the public.

Sawyers-Dussault was ultimately sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison followed by six years of extended supervision. He received credit for more than three years of time served while the case moved through the courts, meaning the remaining prison term he must serve is considerably shorter than the total sentence suggests.

How Wisconsin's Sentencing Rules Apply

The charge of second-degree recklessly endangering safety, under Wisconsin Statute § 941.30(2), is a Class G felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, split between as much as 5 years of initial confinement and 5 years of extended supervision, plus fines up to $25,000, according to the Van Severen Law Office. The fleeing charge, a Class I felony under Wisconsin Statute § 346.04(3), carries a maximum of 3.5 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines, per Eisenberg Personal Injury Lawyers.

Under Wisconsin's Truth-in-Sentencing law, all felony prison sentences are bifurcated into a period of state prison confinement followed by extended supervision, with no parole or early release for good behavior, according to Kim & LaVoy, S.C. That means offenders like Sawyers-Dussault must serve the full initial confinement period ordered by the court before moving into supervised release, a structure that shapes how his 6.5-year sentence will actually play out behind bars.