MARION COUNTY — A Marion County jury took approximately 15 minutes Monday to return a guilty verdict against a 31-year-old Centralia man who failed to appear for his trial on a felony driving revoked charge.

TJ Howard is still facing multiple felony, DUI, and traffic cases in Marion County court. Howard was free on $15,000 cash bond after he failed to appear in court on the nearly 30 outstanding cases in February. He was ultimately located and arrested in June in California before being returned to Illinois.

According to Marion County State’s Attorney Bill Milner, Howard had been advised at an August 2, final pre-trial hearing that if he failed to appear at trial he would be tried in absentia. Howard’s attorney Bill Stiehl Jr. was in court and the trial proceeded without Howard, with the jury returning their verdict around 2 p.m.

Milner, who tried Monday’s case, says a no bond warrant was issued Monday for Howard’s arrest and a status hearing on sentencing was scheduled for Friday. Milner notes that Howard is extended term eligible on Monday’s conviction and could face between one and six years in prison on the Class 4 felony.

When He failed to appear in court in February, most of nearly $65,000 in cash bond that had been posted for Howard in the nearly 12 felony and DUI cases between August 2015 and May 2017 was forfeited to the county. He has since posted an additional $15,000 cash bond when he was returned from California.

Prosecutors had earlier agreed to try Howard on just one of three felony charges against him in the 2016 case in which he was originally charged with two Class 4 felony counts of aggravated fleeing and eluding and two counts driving while license revoked or suspended due to a DUI.

Monday’s trial was one of the last cases for defense attorney Stiehl, as he has been appointed to the bench. Stiehl recently withdrew as defense counsel on a federal drug trafficking case out of Marion County against a reported relative of Howard’s 59-year-old Anthonette “Big Mama” Strowder.