Jury Convicts Victor Dantzson on Multiple Felony Charges

EDWARDSVILLE - A jury on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, found Victor S. Dantzson, a 52-year-old Granite City man, guilty of breaking into a woman’s home on Benton Street in Granite City and attacking a police officer who responded, after jurors deliberated for less than an hour.

Madison County State's Attorney Tom Haine said the verdict was returned Wednesday afternoon in Edwardsville, where Associate Judge Emily Nielsen presided over a trial that began Tuesday. Dantzson was convicted of residential burglary, a Class 1 felony; aggravated battery, a Class 2 felony; and threatening a public official, a Class 3 felony, Haine said.

Prosecutors said Dantzson used a screwdriver on March 4, 2025, to break into the home of an ex-girlfriend. The woman was not home at the time, but came back to find Dantzson in her bedroom, according to evidence and testimony presented at trial. Prosecutors said she had been fearful of him, “to the point of changing the locks on her doors and rigging up traps in her home to keep Dantzson away.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Morgan Hudson, chief of the criminal division at the State’s Attorney’s Office, prosecuted the case with Assistant State’s Attorney Gina McNabnay.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you need a screwdriver to get in, you should not be there,” Hudson told jurors in a closing argument. Hudson said the victim “was done with this defendant” and wanted him out of her life. “He wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Hudson argued.

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Haine praised the Granite City Police Department and the prosecution team after the verdict.

“This verdict against a dangerous offender is the result of outstanding teamwork,” Haine said. “I commend their commitment to protecting the public and holding offenders accountable.”

Prosecutors said Dantzson kicked the responding officer and threatened to kill the officer. The prosecution also played a patrol-vehicle video recorded after Dantzson was taken into custody.

After his arrest, Dantzson attempted to call the ex-girlfriend’s phone 501 times from jail, prosecutors said. “He will not stop,” Hudson told jurors. “When you look at all the evidence that was presented in this case, you have everything you need to stop him. And that is what we are asking you to do today — to stop him.”

The prosecution presented evidence that, in 2003, Dantzson repeatedly broke into the home of a different ex-girlfriend and stabbed her, and that he was convicted of armed violence and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Prosecutors argued that the conviction showed a pattern of behavior.

“Once these women finally got the courage to end things with him, he would not take ‘no’ for an answer. He would not let them go. He refused to move on,” Hudson argued. “He tried to get them back by scaring them, by intimidating them, by randomly appearing in their home — their safe space.”

Dantzson will be sentenced later and faces up to 30 years in prison, Haine said.

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