By SAM CHARLES
Chicago Sun-Times
Earl Wilson | Chicago Police
The suspected killer of Cook County Judge Raymond Myles has been charged with murder, authorities announced Thursday afternoon.
Earl Wilson, 45, was charged with one count of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Myles earlier this month, according to Chicago Police. He was ordered held without bond in the Cook County Jail at a hearing Friday.
Myles and his girlfriend were shot about 4:50 a.m. April 10 outside his home in the 9400 block of South Forest, authorities said. Myles was pronounced dead later that morning at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
A man crept up on the woman as she left Myles’ house. He took her gym bag and shot her in the leg.
Hearing the gunshot, Myles came out of the house and confronted the gunman, who shot Myles four times, killing the 66-year-old judge, prosecutors previously said.
Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Myles
The alleged getaway driver in the shooting, 37-year-old Joshua Smith, was charged earlier this month with first-degree murder, aggravated battery and obstructing police. He is being held without bond at the Cook County Jail.
“We believe he is the shooter in this reprehensible attack and was assisted by Mr. Smith,” Rodney Blisset, commander of Area South Detectives, said of Wilson at a press conference.
Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said Wilson was convicted of attempted murder in 1992 and served 12 years of an 18-year prison sentence.
“As we’ve seen time and time again, he’s no stranger to the criminal justice system,” Johnson said. “In this case, he’s also no stranger to murder.”
In the years since his release from prison, Wilson has also been arrested for car theft, domestic battery and gun possession.
Joshua Smith | Chicago Police
Smith is related to the ex-husband of Myles’ girlfriend, sources previously told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Myles’ girlfriend filed for divorce from her husband in 2015, court records show. The exact relationship between Smith and the ex-husband was not known.
On Thursday, police declined to say if Wilson was also related to Myles’ girlfriend. They also did not specify the relationship between Wilson and Smith.
Blisset also would not say definitively if more suspects were being sought in the case, only that there was “more work to be done.”
At Smith’s bond hearing, prosecutors said the shooter had followed the judge’s girlfriend for weeks before the botched stickup attempt.
The shooter “grew upset” as he rifled through her bag and couldn’t find anything, prosecutors previously said. The man eventually tossed the bag from the car window and into a trash can. Police said the shootings had nothing to do with Myles’ position as a judge.
Last week, dozens of people flocked to Myles’ wake and funeral to pay their respects.
A Chicago Police car is parked in front of the home of Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Myles, 66, in the 9400 block of South Forest. where Myles was fatally wounded. | Leslie Adkins/For the Sun-Times
Mourners included family, friends and Myles’ colleagues from the Cook County judicial system: judges, prosecutors, sheriff’s officers.
“People feel bad, they’re upset,” Judge Diann Marsalek said outside the Stony Island Church of Christ last Friday. “We’re family. We have to look out for each other.”
During his seven years on the bench in Room 204 of the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Myles garnered a reputation for tough love. Though he ordered those who were late to court to write lines, he also loaned shirts and ties to those who did not have them, and worked to point many arrestees toward a high school diploma or GED.