Homicide Watch Chicago

By FRANK MAIN, STEFANO ESPOSITO and SAM CHARLES
Chicago Sun-Times

A jailhouse informant provided the key evidence that led to charges against the alleged triggerman in the execution of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee and the murder of Brianna Jenkins, law enforcement sources said Tuesday.

An inmate in the Cook County Jail told authorities that Dwright Boone-Doty was bragging about shooting Tyshawn, sources said. Cook County sheriff’s officials notified the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and Chicago Police, whose detectives interviewed the informant.

When detectives decided the informant was credible, they obtained court authorization for the informant to wear a wire, which captured Boone-Doty making incriminating statements about his involvement in Tyshawn’s Nov. 2 slaying—as well as the Oct. 18 slaying of Brianna Jenkins.

On Monday, Boone-Doty was charged with murder in the deaths of Tyshawn and Jenkins, and with attempted murder for allegedly wounding Deshari Bowens in the same shooting that killed Jenkins.

The FBI provided technical assistance in the “overhear” of Boone-Doty, who was in the Cook County Jail on a separate gun charge, sources said.

Detectives “were able to ascertain that Mr. Doty targeted, lured and executed Tyshawn Lee,” Anthony Guglielmi, a Chicago Police spokesman, said.

Police believe Tyshawn, Jenkins and Bowens were all shot in connection with an ongoing gang feud in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.

Jenkins, 19, and Bowens, 20, were sitting in a car about 4:30 p.m. Oct. 18 in the 7800 block of South Honore when they were shot, police said.

Jenkins, of the 2100 block of West 69th Street, was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. Friends drove Bowens to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition was stabilized.

Police have said Tyshawn was killed in retaliation for the Oct. 13 murder of Tracey Morgan, 25, after he left a police-sponsored meeting of parolees whose goal was to resolve gang conflicts in the area. Tyshawn was walking to his grandmother’s house at 4 p.m. when he was led into an alley and fatally shot in the head, police said.

Morgan and Boone-Doty were members of a faction of the Black P Stones, police said.

Tyshawn was targeted because of his father’s ties to a rival Gangster Disciples faction believed responsible for Morgan’s killing, police said.

Boone-Doty was arrested on a separate gun charge in mid-November, along with another man, Corey Morgan.

Morgan, the brother of Tracey Morgan, was later charged in Tyshawn’s death. Police have a warrant for the arrest of a third suspect, Kevin Edwards, 22, in the fourth-grader’s killing.

Boone-Doty was sentenced to five years in prison in July 2013 for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and other narcotics convictions, prison records show.

He was paroled in August 2015, three months before Tyshawn was lured into the alley in the 8000 block of South Damen and fatally shot.

Corey Morgan, 27, of Lansing, was previously charged with one count of first-degree murder for the boy’s death and is being held without bond.

Morgan’s attorney, Jonathan Brayman, has said his client denied being involved in Tyshawn’s murder.

Tyshawn was shot in the right temple and the bullet went through his left temple, according to a Nov. 3 autopsy report reviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times. He also was grazed in the back, right forearm and right hand.

Gunpowder residue was found on the left side of Tyshawn’s face, revealing that the shooter likely missed a shot. That bullet likely either grazed his back or struck his right thumb. There were no gunshot wounds on the left side of his face, the report said.

Seven .40-caliber bullet casings were found at the murder scene.