A Dixon teenager was ordered held without bail Thursday for allegedly murdering a 27-year-old man and wounding two others on the South Side earlier this week.
Quovadus Mahomes, 17, was arrested just minutes after he gunned down Devin Common and injured the men Common was walking with Tuesday afternoon in the 7400 block of South Champlain Avenue, Cook County prosecutors said.
A .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun was recovered and Mahomes was identified by a witness and one of the victims, assistant state’s attorney Jamie Santini said. After Mahomes was arrested and told he would be undergoing a gunshot residue test, a camera allegedly caught a handcuffed Mahomes in a police interrogation room removing his pants and urinating on his hands and clothing and then wiping his hands on his urine-stained clothes in an attempt to contaminate the results.
But Mahomes’ lawyer said in his 20 years of practice in criminal law, he’s never heard of such a strategy to manipulate tests and doubted such a young man would know either.
“He had to pee,” defense attorney Jeffrey Granich shrugged to reporters following Thursday’s court hearing.
Common was the second son in his family to die a violent death.
Last summer, his younger brother Antonio Common, 23, was killed in a fatal shooting in an alley near the corner store at East 75th Street and South Langley Avenue.
“I couldn’t believe it was happening all over again,” their mother, Kimberly Common, told the Sun-Times earlier this week.
Devin Common had told his mother he was going to a nearby South Side store before he was shot Tuesday afternoon.
As Devin Common and two others walked on the street Tuesday, Mahomes, who was wearing a blue and red hooded sweatshirt, strolled a half block ahead of them, authorities said.
Soon after, a witness walked by and started talking to Devin Common and his friends.
That’s when Mahomes allegedly pointed a gun and fired.
Devin Common suffered two gunshot wounds to his neck and one to his chest, Santini said.
The two other men, ages 27 and 30, suffered gunshot wounds to the legs and shoulder. The witness, who was not injured, alerted police about the shooting, telling them a robbery may have occurred, according to a police report. The witness chased Mahomes as he ran away with the weapon, Santini said.
The gun was recovered near the murder scene without any bullets inside, Santini said. Eight .45-caliber shell casings were also inventoried, Santini said.
Mahomes has a 2011 burglary conviction.