WAUKEGAN, Ill. (STMW) – A former north suburban man sentenced to death last Friday in Virginia murder will likely stand trial in Lake County later this summer for the brutal murder of two young girls on Mother’s Day 2005.

Jorge Torrez, 25, an ex-marine from Zion, received the death penalty for the slaying of Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Amanda Snell, 20, at a base in northern Virginia.

Torrez is now expected to face murder charges in Lake County for the fatal stabbings of Laura Hobbs, 8; and Krystal Tobias, 9, in the Beulah Park Forest Preserve in Zion.

Lake County State’s Atty. Mike Nerheim said Monday there was no question as to whether Torrez would be tried in Lake County despite his most recent conviction and previous convictions on rape, robbery and abduction charges.

“This was a horrific double homicide of two beautiful young girls killed on a Mother’s Day,” Nerheim said. “I’m not just going to let that go. I believe it’s the right thing to do.”

Nerheim said the victims’ families “very much want this to go to trial.”

“I do believe closure is part of justice,” Nerheim said. “This was a very important case to the community, too. The community needs closure.”

According to investigators, DNA found at the girls’ murder scene matches Torrez, who lived in the same neighborhood in 2005 and was a friend of Krystal’s older brother.

He left the area to enter the Marines, which took him to the Virginia area.

Nerheim said that while he assumes the conviction and death sentence in Virginia is solid, he can never know what an appellate court may do with a case.

Assistant State’s Attorney Ari Fisz attended Torrez’s murder trial in Virginia, and said his best information is that Torrez will go to trial in Lake County in late summer or early fall.

The jury that convicted Torrez of Snell’s murder decided on the death penalty, and a judge made the sentence official on Friday.

Fisz said the jury was not told of the Zion murders during the Virginia trial, but the DNA evidence linking him to the deaths of Hobbs and Tobias was introduced by the prosecution during the penalty phase.

Nerheim said Fisz and Steve Scheller, another veteran assistant state’s attorney, will prosecute Torrez in the Lake County double homicide.

Torrez would face a potential life sentence if convicted.

Jerry Hobbs, Laura’s father, was initially charged with killing his daughter and her friend after signing a confession following an interrogation that lasted more than 20 hours. He spent five years in Lake County Jail awaiting trial before charges were dropped in 2010 after DNA evidence linked Torrez to the murders.

Nerheim, who was not in office at that time, said the fact that “an innocent person spent five years in jail is an additional tragedy” attached to the case.

Zion became a focus of national attention in May 2005 when news broke about the murders. Locally, prayer vigils were held and parents kept their children close as the case was described as a crime of rage.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

ROLLING MEADOWS (CBS) –Jurors in a suburban courtroom found a man guilty this afternoon in the stabbing deaths of three members of his fiancée’s family.

D’Andre Howard’s defense team argued insanity in the 2009 attack that left Laura and Alan Engelhardt and Marlene Gacek dead and Shelly Engelhardt seriously wounded.

Prosecutor Maria McCarthy was asked what she thought of Howard’s testimony that he heard noises in his head.

“I thought it was ridiculous. I thought D’Andre’s testimony was ridiculous and clearly the jury did too,” said McCarthy.

Man Guilty In 2009 Murder Of Ex-Fiancée's Family

WBBM 780/105.9FM

playpause

A family spokesman said afterward that justice was served and the mandatory life sentence will provide closure.

Jeff Engelhardt says his family never bought Howard’s insanity defense. He said the verdict is helping them move forward once again.

“A lot of emotions….just a lot of relief,” said Jeff Engelhardt.

Defense lawyers said the judge denied them the ability to present their full case and will appeal.

“We are disappointed that the jury wasn’t really able to get all of the information that we feel they should have gotten about D’Andre’s background and his mental health history,” said defense attorney Deana Einstock.

Howard’s mother could manage only dry heaves as she left the courthouse.

CHICAGO (STMW) – A man who admitted to strangling his girlfriend in his Pilsen apartment in 2012, then tried unsuccessfully to kill himself, was sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday.

Angel Santiago was working as a truck driver for Krispy Kreme in January 2012 when he got jealous after learning from text messages on her phone that Antonia Berrios, 33, had a new boyfriend, the Sun-Times reported at the time.

After killing her — and failing to kill himself — on Jan. 24, 2012, Santiago took off for Florida, where FBI agents tracked him down and arrested him in June 2013, prosecutors said at his bond hearing.

Berrios’ family got worried when they didn’t hear from her for a few days and went to Santiago’s apartment where they found her body, prosecutors said.

Santiago pleaded guilty on April 30 to one count of murder; four other murder charges, along with charges of identity theft and robbery, were dropped, according to Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.

Judge James Linn handed down the 25-year sentence at a hearing Tuesday, court records show. Santiago, 40, will receive credit for 342 days spent in jail since his arrest.

When the police got to the apartment in the 2000 block of South May Street, they found a bizarre scene, prosecutors said, including sticky notes Santiago apparently wrote, one of which, referring to Berrios’ new boyfriend, said: “Because of Michael, this happened.”

Two other notes said: “See you on the other side, Goodbye,” and “Give all my belongings to my kids,” prosecutors said.

In the bathroom sink, investigators found vomit mixed with pills. The bathtub was one-quarter full, and a noose — fashioned from a heavy-duty extension cord — was hanging from the rear porch.

Investigators later found that Berrios’ Chase debit card had been used after she was presumed dead and her car was missing, Dillman said.

Berrios’ car was found a block from the Greyhound station in the 600 block of West Harrison Street. FBI agents and police in south Florida arrested Santiago about 18 months later in Florida City.

He admitted strangling Berrios and trying to kill himself after seeing text messages about the new boyfriend, prosecutors said.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

(CBS) – Police in Mundelein say they’ve not yet been able to question a hospitalized man about the apparent murder of an Island Lake woman.

It was Monday night when the body of 48-year-old Karen Scavelli was found in her home in Island Lake.

A red Pontiac Grand Am had been taken from her home – and police in Mundelein located that car and were following it when the driver crashed it into a house in Mundelein.

Police Still Waiting To Question Suspect In Island Lake Woman's Death

WBBM 780/105.9FM

playpause

Mundelein Police Chief Eric Guenther says the 49-year-old McHenry man who was driving has been in the hospital in ICU.

“I can’t tell you what injuries were as a result of the crash. However, as officers were attempting to give him verbal commands the subject utilized both a knife and a hammer to self-inflict several serious wounds to himself.”

Mundelein Police started the chase after they got a call that the man had gone into a restaurant and had stolen an employee’s purse.

Police say they don’t believe the man’s injuries are life-threatening – but they still haven’t been able to question him about the death of Karen Scavelli.

(STMW) – A man has been charged with fatally shooting Chicago rapper Twista’s security guard, a man who was found dead in February after a fire in the South Chicago neighborhood.

Matthew X. Jackson, 25, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery for the Feb. 21 attack in the 8300 block of South Baker Avenue, police News Affairs said in a statement.

Davy Easterling, 31, was found dead after crews responded about 6 a.m. to a fire at a 2 1/2-story, multi-unit building at that address, authorities said.

The fire started in the rear bedroom, where Easterling was found with gunshot wounds to the throat and chest, authorities said.

Easterling, of the 8100 block of South Vernon Avenue, was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:41 a.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. An autopsy found he died of multiple gunshot wounds and ruled his death a homicide.

Authorities have identified Jackson as the alleged shooter, the statement said.

Two days before Easterling was found, the rapper had been posting on social media that “a close friend” and security guard was missing.

Fire officials and the police Bomb and Arson Unit investigated the blaze.

Jackson, of the 8000 block of South Champlain Avenue, will appear in court for a bond hearing Thursday.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

CHICAGO (AP) – When a 14-year-old Chicago girl was arrested on charges that she shot and killed another 14-year-old Chicago girl, much of the attention centered on how the shooting stemmed from an argument over a boy that was playing out on Facebook.

But to hear police, prosecutors and the victim’s friends tell it, the slaying of Endia Martin was also a tragedy that could have been stopped by many people along the way — from a trusted uncle charged with bringing the teen a gun and watching as she opened fire, to an aunt who authorities say did not step in, to the victim herself, who did not heed classmates’ warnings that she risked facing a gun on that April afternoon.

The war of words ended with Martin joining the longest list of homicides in any city in the nation — offering a glimpse at life and death in some pockets of Chicago, where a reflex to grab a gun has become entrenched enough that even the victim understood the other teen might be armed.

“They are making her look like a monster when she was just a love-starved child who turned to the wrong person,” said Jerry Thomas, 48, a neighbor of the girl and acquaintance of the uncle, 25-year-old Donnell Flora, who is charged with first-degree murder. “This thing took both children’s lives.”

The girl charged with shooting Martin in the back on April 28 appeared in juvenile court on Friday on a first-degree murder charge, for a brief hearing in which she was flanked by her mother and grandmother off to one side, and the mother of the victim and other relatives standing a few feet away on the other side. The Associated Press is not releasing the girl’s name because she is a minor.

Martin, a vibrant girl who wanted to be a nurse like her mother, became the latest symbol of the violence that has put Chicago at the center of a national debate about gun crime. In 2012, the city recorded more than 500 homicides — nearly 100 more than New York and 200 more than Los Angeles. The numbers have since dropped, though Chicago still leads the nation as stories of bloodshed accumulate.

Endia Martin’s death highlights another part of the same Chicago story: Not of a gang dispute, but one of neighborhoods where police say firearms are so easy to find, so accepted, that a good student and respectful child allegedly contacted an uncle — himself, police say, a known gang member who has been in a wheelchair since he was shot in 2010 — and asked him to bring her a gun.

The minister who eulogized Endia at her funeral said he sees Flora as a man passing on a way of life that he can no longer have himself.

“If you’re shot and paralyzed, what do you do?” asked Pastor Larry Martin, who is not related to Endia. “You can’t be the villain in the neighborhood in a wheelchair, but you can help empower someone else.”

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy made a similar point after Flora’s arrest, pointing to his refusal to cooperate with investigators after he was shot as a “‘classic example of the cycle of violence … that exemplifies what we are up against.” McCarthy points to the prevalence of guns, and lenient sentences for gun crimes, as one of the main problems behind the city’s violence.

The teen charged in the slaying was, according to Thomas, a nice girl who always had a book in her hand and said hello on her way to school. Both she and her uncle are represented by Cook County’s public defender’s office, which declined to comment.

Authorities also contended the suspect’s aunt could have intervened. During a court hearing, a police officer testified that 32-year-old Vandetta Redwood encouraged the suspect and other teens to “kick their ass” as they rode a bus that day.

Footage from a cellphone camera appears to confirm Redwood was at the fight, said her attorney. But he argued there was no evidence she played a role in the shooting and a judge agreed, dismissing mob action and obstruction charges against her. Redwood declined comment.

At Endia’s high school, there’s talk among students that there could have been a different outcome had she listened to classmates who heard someone might bring a gun.

“But she didn’t expect anyone to actually use it,” said one of the classmates who tried to talk Endia out of going to the scene of the fight. The classmate, who has known both girls since elementary school, spoke on condition of anonymity due to concern about retaliation. “Sometimes they bring guns to a fight — it happens.”

(TM and © Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

HAMMOND, Ind. (STMW) – An East Chicago Imperial Gangsters member says his racketeering and murder conviction should be tossed partly because he thinks one of his jurors has ties to a rival gang.

An attorney for Richard Reyes, who was convicted after a trial in January in the U.S. District Court in Hammond of killing Rene Alonzo in September 2007, filed the motion for acquittal Monday.

Reyes, who is set to be sentenced July 31, claims in the motion that he has reason to believe one of the jurors who convicted him has ties to the Latin Kings, a rival gang to the Imperial Gangsters.

“This would indicate not only possible bias on the part of the juror, but the juror’s failure to disclose this during (jury questioning) would be grounds to requested relief post-verdict,” the motion says.

He argues that three notes that the jury sent to U.S. District Judge Philip Simon during their deliberation also show that they were under fear. The first question asked if the foreman would be publicly identified, the second asked for the definition of murder and the third asked for a new verdict form.

Reyes’ attorney Jack Friedlander is also asking to interview juror members again to further investigate these claims.

The motion goes on to say that the government should not have been allowed to present rebuttal testimony by rival Latin Kings members, who Reyes said worked with each other to make sure they gave the same testimony. He also claims that federal attorneys knew these witnesses had done this.

“This was outrageous and an improper tactic to win at all costs,” the motion says.

It also reiterates an argument Friedlander made just before trial that prosecutors improperly held on to evidence that could have helped acquit Reyes.

Reyes is asking for an acquittal or to have a new trial.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

(CBS) — It is a startling twist in a 22-year-old murder case that rocked the northern suburbs.

11-year-old Holly Staker was raped and stabbed to death while she was babysitting in Waukegan in 1992.

DNA evidence from Staker’s case has now been matched to a potential suspect in a second murder case. That case happened nearly a decade after Staker was killed, but the suspect remains unknown.

“We think it’s very significant.”,” said David Owens with the Exoneration Project. “We think it’s very significant.”

It was an effort to exonerate his client, Marvin Williford, of the torturous 2000 murder of Delwin Foxworth. They state ran a DNA test on a two-by-four used in the murder.

Marvin Williford’s DNA wasn’t there, but the two-by-four DNA matched a mystery profile: it was the same DNA that was found inside Holly Staker.

A man named Juan Rivera was once convicted of that crime three times, and freed, three times.

On Tuesday, Rivera told CBS 2, “These are horrific crimes and both families deserve justice. Second, I sincerely wish that this newly disclosed DNA evidence had come to light a decade ago, before I served nearly 20 years in prison for a crime I did not commit.”

It’s a break for his client, in another case he didn’t expect.

“Without a doubt that this person is involved in both instances,” said Owens. “Someone who hasn’t been identified.”

The Lake County State’s Attorney only says at this time the Staker case remains under investigation.

CHICAGO (CBS) – Twenty years ago Thursday, actor and former football star O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ronald Goldman were found murdered outside of her townhouse in Los Angeles. =

What ensued was thought by many to be the trial of the century or, at the very least, the decade.

A former prosecutor-turned-law professor said it has become a textbook case of how not to investigate and try a murder case.

IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law Professor Douglas Godfrey, a former New York prosecutor, said case-breaking mistakes were made long before the case made it to the courtroom. In fact, he said they began from almost the moment Los Angeles Police rolled up on the scene.

“The location where Ron and Nicole were murdered was contaminated from the beginning,” he said. “Police were walking through it. A police officer actually brought a blanket out from the house to cover the bodies.”

WBBM 780’s Bob Roberts

WBBM 780/105.9FM

playpause

Simpson had been in his ex-wife’s home to visit his children.

“If you wanted to explain how Simpson’s hair was at the murder scene, you could say it was on the blanket,” he said.

He said an LAPD detective who drew Simpson’s blood samples kept them in his pocket and returned to the crime scene still carrying the samples, which gave the defense the ability to argue that Simpson was framed.

Godfrey said that it was one of the rare cases where the defendant could spend as much, if not more, than the prosecution.

He said good lawyering can win cases, and bad lawyering can lose them. He said the shrewdness of Simpson’s legal team was mirrored at many points by the ineptness of the prosecution.

Godfrey said prosecutors botched the grand jury proceeding and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Ito let the trial spiral out of his control early on. The result was that Simpson was acquitted of murder, but the Goldman family was able to obtain a $33.5 million wrongful death lawsuit against him “using the same set of facts.”

In that respect, Godfrey said, Simpson’s legal and financial team showed themselves to be shrewd. He said Simpson hid much of his wealth in a Florida home and retirement accounts, and then declared bankruptcy. Simpson, now in prison for an unrelated armed robbery and kidnapping conviction, still owes that $33.5 million civil judgment in the wrongful death case.

“It taught us the need for good financial planning, since O.J. shielded many of his assets in retirement investments such as a large house in Florida, which is under the homestead exemption,” he said. “He’s also protected in bankruptcy from creditors. The result is that the civil judgment really didn’t hurt him too much.”

Updated 06/12/14 – 1:49 p.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) – A 23-year-old man has been charged with killing a special education teacher who was felled by a stray bullet in the Chatham neighborhood last month.

Dr. Betty Howard, 58, was working her second job at a realty office near 79th Street and Evans Avenue around 5:30 p.m. May 29, when bullets pierced the wall of the building, and struck her in the head. She died less than an hour later at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Two other people also were wounded in the shooting.

Early Thursday morning, police said 23-year-old Dominique Hodrick has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, and three counts of aggravated battery in connection with the shooting. He was ordered held without bail at a bond hearing Thursday afternoon.

Victim's Colleagues Excited About Arrest

WBBM 780/105.9FM

playpause

Police said Hodrick was targeting a group of rival gang members, but shot wildly, and didn’t strike his intended target. Instead, the bullets ripped through the wall of the real estate office where Howard was working, and killed her as she worked at her desk.

One of her co-workers, a 58-year-old man, and a 23-year-old woman walking outside the building also were wounded by gunfire.

Two days after the shooting, Community activist Andrew Holmes began passing out flyers with Hodrick’s picture, identifying him as a person of interest in the shooting.

“We decided to put this flyer together, because this guy’s name was ringing hot in the community,” Holmes said.

Hodrick was arrested Tuesday, after he was found hiding out at a South Side motel.

Holmes said there’s a chance others could be arrested in the case.

“We feel that he wasn’t the only one out there. If there was anyone else out there with this individual, as he discharged that weapon, you are just as much involved in the case as he was,” Holmes said.

Special education teacher Betty Howard and her son, James Washington. (Family Photo)

Howard headed the special education department at Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep Academy High School. At her funeral on Saturday, her brother described her as a “phenomenal” woman, and the principal of Gwendolyn Brooks said “she was education at its best.”

“The families are still healing. I did speak with the families. They’re still hurting, and they’re just waiting on what’s going to happen in the courtroom,” Holmes said.

The 58-year-old man who was wounded in the shooting said going to work each day since then has not been the same.

“There is no way to walk in here and not have the scenes come back into your head again,” he said. “It was something that I don’t think that any of the people that were forced to experience that will ever forget.”

He said his hat goes off to police who worked the case and caught Hodrick.

Kale Realty operations manager Bruce Stafford, who also was in the office at the time of the shooting, said he’s also excited a suspect has been charged.

“It was just a horrific scene, and our prayers and thoughts still go out to the family,” he said. “I’m glad justice will be brought to this horrible, horrible scene.”

Charles Owens, who operates a dentist office half a block away, said despite his 20-year presence in the area, he’s thinking of leaving the neighborhood in the wake of the shooting.

“At some time or another, with these crimes going on, I have to think about moving to another location, because they are basically running everybody out of the neighborhood,” Owens said.

Hodrick has been arrested before, but for relatively minor crimes.

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (STMW) – Prosecutors revealed this week that they have a witness who told them that Philip Vatamaniuc allegedly admitted to being the shooter in the murder of Highland Park 20-year-old Colin Nutter last summer.

The information came out during a hearing Tuesday on a defense motion from Vatamaniuc’s attorney, Robert Ritacca, who asked Judge Victoria Rossetti to hold the state to a previous plea offer to his client.

But following arguments on the motion, Rossetti ruled that the state’s offer had expired last fall.

“There is no right a defendant has to a plea (agreement). Absolutely none,” Rossettii said. “In this court’s eyes, the offer has been terminated, or lapsed.”

Colin Nutter with his sister Sara. (Credit; Twitter)

Assistant State’s Attorney Reginald Mathews said the tentative offer, which was given in early fall and expired in October, would have had Vatamaniuc pleading guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for cooperation during the trials of other defendants.

After the offer was tendered, a friend of Vatamaniuc allegedly came forward and gave a statement to prosecutors that Vatamaniuc had told him “he pointed a gun to the back of the victim’s head and shot,” Mathews said.

Ritacca argued that any such testimony is third-party hearsay and is “nothing that will be of any value at trial.”

Vatamaniuc’s trial is currently scheduled to begin June 16.

Vatamaniuc, 17, of Highland Park; Benjamin Schenk, 20, of Highwood; and Michael Coffee, 18, of Highland Park, have all been charged with first-degree murder in the case.

Benjamin Schenk, 20, Philip Vatamaniuc, 17, and Michael Coffee, 17, have each been charged with first-degree murder. (Credit: Highwood Police)

Court filings have pointed to both Schenk and Vatamaniuc as the potential shooter in the case.

Police and prosecutors say Schenk, Vatamaniuc and Coffee arranged to buy marijuana from Nutter the morning of the murder. They met in Nutter’s car, where he was shot and died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Nutter’s body was found June 3, 2013 lying in brush near the Edens Expressway on the east side of Frontage Road in Wilmette.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

ST. CHARLES (STMW) – Ricky Villalpando will likely never know why his kid sister was murdered, but on Thursday, he finally learned who did it.

Juan Garnica, 20, of Aurora, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for beating 18-year-old Abigail Villalpando of Aurora to death.

The two had been friends since junior high school, Ricky said, but on Jan. 31, 2013, something changed.

Prosecutors said that Garnica bludgeoned Abigail Villalpando with a hammer, and set her body on fire.

In court on Thursday, where Garnica accepted his plea agreement, Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon outlined the evidence he believed prosecutors could prove, had the case gone to trial.

Garnica and Villalpando were hanging out at an Aurora home when Garnica asked her to look at a dead turtle inside an aquarium. He then pulled a hammer from his back pocket and struck her twice on the head, McMahon said.

When she fell, Garnica continued to beat her, and when he was done, he commissioned two other men, Enrique Prado, 20, and Jose Becerra, 22, to help stuff the body into a stolen barrel, which was then burned, he said.

Villalpando’s remains were found days later in a Montgomery field.

On Thursday morning, as they listened to the details of the crime yet again, Villalpando’s family wept.

Her mother, Maribel Hernandez, began shaking as the orange-clad 20-year-old entered the courtroom.

Garnica remained silent, but shook his head several times as McMahon laid out the evidence against him.

“Are you disagreeing with the facts? Is that how the court should interpret that?” Judge John Barsanti asked Garnica after noticing the gesture.

Garnica’s attorney told the judge her client was just reacting to the statement.

Outside of his head shaking, Garncia reacted little to what was happening around him.

The only time he spoke was to answer Barsanti’s “yes, no” questions about the proceedings.

For Ricky Villalpando, it didn’t feel like closure. He still doesn’t know why Garnica would want to hurt Abigail. McMahon said prosecutors did not have a clear motive, either.

“Maybe it’s something we’ll die not knowing,” Ricky said outside the courtroom Thursday.

He said he could have had held on a bit longer for a trial. He hoped that through the evidence, his sister would have a voice.

“I feel like we wanted to hear my sister’s side of the story. We wanted to know why they did this to her,” he said. “She deserved a fair trial, and at this point, she’s not going to get it.”

Garnica will serve 100 percent of his 30-year sentence, and will be released from prison when he is 49. He faced between 20 and 60 years.

“He’s going to get out and still have a life to live,” Ricky said.

Prado and Becerra were charged with concealing a homicide. Prado was also charged with arson for allegedly setting Villalpando’s car on fire under the High Street bridge following her disappearance.

Each man posted bond and was released in November 2013.

Ricky said he feels some sense of justice as far Garnica’s sentence is concerned, but not completely.

“I’ll never be happy (with his sentence). I wouldn’t even be happy with 60 years,” he said. “But, it is what it is …. even if he served a trillion years, it wouldn’t be enough.”

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

CHICAGO (CBS) – Nearly a year and a half after her tragic murder, Hadiya Pendleton’s parents have launched a national non-profit in her name, with the goal of saving other children.

WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports the logo for “Hadiya’s Promise” was taken from a photo Hadiya took of her feet in the snow.

“I look at that photo, we look at that photo, and we think about how much time we thought we had; how many more steps we thought she would take,” said her mother, Cleo. “We are encouraged to lengthen the time that everyone else’s child had.”

WBBM 780’s Mike Krauser

WBBM 780/105.9FM

playpause

Hadiya was only 16 years old when she was shot and killed while standing with a group of friends at a Kenwood neighborhood park, while taking shelter from the rain in January 2013.

Two young men have been charged with her murder. Police and prosecutors have said 18-year-old Michael Ward fired several shots at Hadiya and her friends, mistaking them for a group of rival gang members. Kenneth Williams, 20, allegedly provided the gun and drove the getaway car.

Prosecutors have said Ward and Williams were out for revenge, after a rival gang killed a friend of Ward’s. Williams also had been wounded by a rival gang member the previous summer.

Hadiya’s family said the non-profit established in her memory is meant to be a voice for change.

“At the end of the day, young people are carrying guns, because they either don’t value life or because they don’t believe that their lives are valued,” said executive director Angela Rudolph. “Part of what we want to do is to change the dime on that.”

Five months ago, the city agreed to lease two unused offices inside the Martin Luther King Community Center at 43rd and Cottage Grove to the Hadiya Pendleton Foundation through 2016. The foundation was created to provide mentoring, tutoring, computer programs, and recreational activities to Chicago youths after school.

CHICAGO (AP) – A Chicago man who served 32 years in prison before DNA evidence overturned his conviction in the 1980 rape and murder of a 3-year-old girl has now been charged with killing a man after a dispute in a dice game.

Andre Davis, 53, was charged with murder Thursday in the October death of 19-year-old Jamal Harmon, whose body was found shot and stabbed in an alley. A judge ordered Davis held without bond.

Prosecutors allege that Davis’ nephew shot and wounded Harmon in a dispute over money lost in a dice game, then Davis helped load the man — who was still alive, according to witnesses — into the trunk of a car.

During Thursday’s court hearing, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Mack said witnesses also told investigators that Davis told people he had cut Harmon’s throat and intended to dump the body, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

It was unclear Friday whether Davis had an attorney. He had a public defender at the hearing, but the Cook County Public Defender’s Office said Friday that it was no longer representing him. Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, which represented him in the previous case, declined to comment on Davis’ arrest or whether it would be representing him in the current case.

Davis was freed from prison in 2012, after spending more than three decades behind bars following his conviction — before DNA testing was available — in the 1980 slaying of 3-year-old Brianna Stickle in Rantoul.

In 2004, Davis requested that evidence gathered at the crime scene be tested. The tests revealed that blood and semen found at the scene did not come from Davis.

But it wasn’t until March 2012 that an Illinois appellate court ordered that Davis be granted a new trial. A few months later, prosecutors dropped the case against him, and Davis was released from the super maximum security prison in Tamms.

(© 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

CHICAGO (STMW) — A West Side man has been charged with murder for a fatal shooting in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side last year.

Steven Douglas, 22, was charged with one count of first-degree murder for allegedly shooting Rico Lawrence in the head outside his home in the 5100 block of South Winchester Avenue shortly after 1:30 p.m. Aug. 30, 2013, authorities said.

Lawrence, 43, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Douglas, of the 200 block of North Kildare Avenue, is expected to appear in bond court later Saturday, police said.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

JOLIET, Ill. (STMW) – Lawyers for one of four people charged in a Joliet double slaying last year want a Will County judge to suppress statements their client made while being interrogated by police.

Circuit Court Judge Gerald Kinney will review a more than 24-hour-long recording of Joshua Miner while he was questioned at the Joliet police station following the January 2013 slayings at a house on Hickory Street.

The defense alleges in motions that Miner, 25, was questioned under duress and without a lawyer present. Prosecutors said Miner was read his rights and was not coerced during questioning.

Friends Eric Glover, 22, and Terrance O. Rankins, 22, were killed in Joliet Thursday by four acquaintances, police say. (Family handouts)

Miner; Alissa Massaro, 20; Adam Landerman, 19; and Bethany McKee, 18, are charged with killing Eric Glover and Terrance Rankins, both 22, inside Massaro’s father’s house, 1121 Hickory St., after luring them there to steal drugs and money, according to prosecutors.

At a hearing Monday, Joliet police Detective Pat Schumacher testified that Miner was placed in handcuffs and made two statements voluntarily before being taken to the police station by Schumacher and another Joliet officer. During the ride to the station, Miner expressed concern about being in a police interrogation room, Schumacher said.

The recording of the questioning shows Miner eating and speaking with Joliet detectives and also sleeping during about 24 hours. All of the questioning happened in an 81/2-hour period, with the bulk of the questions asked in three hours, the recording indicates.

Schumacher told Kinney that Miner was not free to leave but had been told he was not yet charged with a crime.

He also testified about a waiver-of-rights form signed by him, Miner and a witnessing officer that was dated at 4:48 p.m. but that Miner didn’t sign until hours later. Miner twice waived his right to have an attorney present during questioning, the video shows.

At one point Monday, prosecutors asked Schumacher if Miner had been crying or appeared to be in mental distress during the interrogation.

“Not that I noticed,” Schumacher said.

Adam Landerman (clockwise from top left), Alisa Massaro, Joshua Miner, and Bethany McKee (Credit: Will County Sheriff’s Office)

Massaro pleaded guilty last month to lesser charges, two counts of robbery and two counts of concealment of a homicide, in exchange for the first-degree murder charge being dropped and her agreeing to testify against Miner, Landerman and McKee at their trials. Each is being tried separately, and Kinney on Monday set a July 14 trial date for McKee.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

LA PORTE, Ind. (CBS) – A 48-year-old Indiana man was being held on preliminary charge of murder, after a woman’s body was discovered in a freezer inside the home they shared.

Daniel Shoffner, according to a neighbor, moved in with the victim several months ago, after her husband died.

A relative of the woman, who was about 70 years old, called police Sunday night, apparently for a well-being check at her home in La Porte, Indiana.

Shoffner was at the home when police arrived, their guns drawn.

The woman’s body was found in a large freezer inside the home, and Shoffner was taken into custody on a preliminary charge of murcer.

The LaPorte County Coroner’s office said the woman had been dead for some time, and the body must be thawed before an autopsy can be conducted – likely on Wednesday.

The victim’s name has not yet been released.

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (STMW) – The defense attorney for Philip Vatamaniuc, charged with the murder of Colin Nutter, was removed from the case Tuesday by a Lake County judge.

Judge Victoria Rossetti agreed with a motion from prosecutors claiming that defense attorney Robert Ritacca’s representation of Vatamaniuc, as well as a potential material witness in the case who is facing a separate drug charge, created a conflict of interest.

After the ruling, Rossetti told Vatamaniuc, who remains in the Lake County Jail on a $5 million bond, that he will be allowed several phone calls to discuss the situation with his family and decide whether to hire another attorney or request a public defender.

Rosetti set a status hearing on the attorney issue June 25 for the 17-year-old Highland Park resident, whose trial had been scheduled to begin this week.

Immediately after the ruling, Ritacca said he will appeal the judge’s decision at the appellate court level.

Assistant State’s Attorney Reginald Mathews, who filed the motion to disqualify Ritacca, argued prior to the ruling that it was a conflict for Ritacca to represent Vatamaniuc because he is also representing Vito Damore, a potential witness in the murder case, on an unrelated charge.

Mathews said that if Ritacca counseled Damore to cooperate with the state in the Vatamaniuc case, it would be a disservice to Vatamaniuc. At the same time, Mathews also noted that it could be detrimental to Damore if he does not cooperate.

The situation also sets up the possibility that an appeals court could overturn a potential conviction of Vatamaniuc based on the representation conflict, Mathews said.

“The consequences are astronomical,” said Mathews, noting Vatamaniuc faces a possible life sentence because he is charged with enhanced first-degree murder for allegedly being the shooter.

According to prosecutors, Vatamaniuc arranged to buy marijuana from Nutter the morning of the murder along with Benjamin Schenk, 20, of Highwood; and Michael Coffee, 18 of Highland Park. The meeting took place in Nutter’s car, where he was shot in the head, officials said.

In court Tuesday, Mathews said Damore was allegedly the initial target in a plan by the three defendants to rob a drug dealer. He also is a potential witness to statements that implicate Vatamaniuc, prosecutors said.

Attorney James Schwarzbach, who served as special counsel for Vatamaniuc on Tuesday, argued that any ruling to disqualify Ritacca would be premature until it is determined whether any of Damore’s testimony would be used in the trial.

Schwarzbach also said that removing Ritacca from the case “would be a direct attack on the defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights to counsel of his choice.”

Rossetti said in her ruling that the court has the discretion to override counsel of choice in certain circumstances, including cases of potential serious conflict.

Vatamaniuc and Schenk are both charged as the shooter in the case. Potential witnesses have identified both men as being the triggerman, prosecutors said.

Coffee, who rejected a plea deal offer Monday, also faces enhanced murder charges because a firearm was used in the case. He could be sentenced to up to 75 years if convicted.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

LA PORTE, Ind. (CBS) – A northwest Indiana man allegedly claimed he was showing off “knife moves” to his elderly roommate when he accidentally killed her at their home in La Porte.

WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports Daniel Shoffner, 47, has been charged with murder in the death of 73-year-old Birdie Elder, whose body was found inside a freezer in the home they shared.

Officers were called to the home after Shoffner’s daughter called police, saying he had told her he killed Elder. Police found the victim’s body, completely frozen, in a seated position inside a 3-foot-tall chest-style freezer.

Police said Shoffner claimed he was demonstrating “knife moves” when he accidentally stabbed her in the neck and chest. He allegedly admitted he also might have stabbed her in the hand, as she tried to protect herself.

Authorities believe Elder’s body had been in the freezer for about a week before it was discovered.

According to court documents, Shoffner claimed he was trying to take his own life after killing Elder.

Neighbors reported Elder and Shoffner had been involved in a romantic relationship, and Shoffner had moved into Elder’s home several months ago, after her husband died.

Shoffner was being held without bond at the LaPorte County Jail. He was due for an arraignment hearing on Friday.

CHICAGO (STMW) – Eric O’Neil spent part of Father’s Day enjoying a beer on his longtime neighbor’s porch on the Far South Side.

Before the night was over, O’Neil’s friend, Louis Winn, Jr. — a father and a grandfather — was stabbed to death in O’Neil’s car.

Cook County prosecutor Colleen Rogers said in court Tuesday that before the 56-year-old Winn was stabbed to death by his niece, she “reproached the victim about how he was spending his time,” near their home in the 10400 block of South Morgan Street.

O’Neil told the Sun-Times Tuesday he didn’t know what started the fight but remembers the two getting into a physical altercation after Takia Lanza, his niece, punched Winn in the face.

“I wasn’t paying attention because I didn’t think it was serious,” O’Neil, 52, said.

O’Neil said Lanza, 39, also punched him inadvertently when he tried to break up the fight.

Eventually, Lanza went back inside the house, prosecutors said.

But when Winn got into O’Neil’s car, she allegedly came back outside out with a steak knife, reached inside the passenger side of the car and stabbed Winn repeatedly in the chest, prosecutors said.

“I thought she was punching him but then Louis told me, ‘Aww. She stabbed me’ and passed out,” O’Neil said.

O’Neil said he was able to get Winn out of the car and called 911.

But it was too late.

Winn was stabbed through the heart and had multiple defense wounds, Rogers said.

O’Neil said he was still recovering from the shock of watching his neighbor of roughly three decades die.

“Someone got murdered in my car and for what?” he said.

Lanza, mother of a seven-year-old boy, is charged with Winn’s murder and was ordered held in lieu of $2 million bail Tuesday.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)