Homicide Watch Chicago

Charges were pending Sunday against the person who fatally stabbed 35-year-old Maricela Villegas in Bridgeport Saturday evening, according to Chicago Police.

Villegas was stabbed in the neck during a domestic fight in the 2800 block of South Short Street shortly before 6 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

She was taken to Stroger Hospital, where she died at 6:28 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office. Villegas lived on the same block.

The attacker was arrested at the scene and charges were pending, police said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Raheem L. Robinson was killed and another man was wounded in a Chatham neighborhood shooting early Sunday.

The men, both 25, were at a party in the 600 block of East 79th Street about 2:30 a.m. when a fight broke out and someone opened fire, according to Chicago Police.

Robinson was shot in the abdomen and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died less than an hour later, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the 400 block of West 103rd Street.

The other man was shot in the right shoulder and was taken to the same hospital. His condition stabilized, police said.

No one was in custody for the attack.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Terrell Sykes was fatally shot on the block where he lived in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood late Friday.

The 20-year-old was standing in the street in the 8500 block of South Hermitage about 11:20 p.m. when he heard gunshots and felt pain, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and Chicago Police.

Sykes, who lived on the same block, was shot in the abdomen and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where was pronounced dead an hour later, authorities said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Charles Thorne | Chicago Police

A second brother now faces a murder charge for the fatal shooting of Alston Ronnie McNeal in October in Austin, an incident prosecutors say started after McNeal’s girlfriend was inappropriately touched at a party.

Charles Thorne, 27, pulled the trigger in the early morning hours of Oct. 10, 2015, attack in the 1100 block of North Lawler, according to Chicago Police and Cook County prosecutors. His brother, 34-year-old Antoine Thorne, was charged with murder in December.

They brothers were at a birthday party in an apartment when Antoine Thorne inappropriately grabbed the butt of 33-year-old Alston McNeal’s girlfriend, prosecutors said at Antoine Thorne’s bond hearing in December.

The two argued briefly before McNeal walked away. He was standing at the front door on his way out when Antoine Thorne charged at him with a gun, prosecutors said. They wrestled for the weapon, which went off without striking anyone.
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A man shot to death Tuesday evening in Pilsen has been identified as 28-year-old Jonathan Luna.

The 28-year-old was outside in the 1700 block of West Cermak Road at 6:48 p.m. when someone walked up and shot him in his chest and side, according to Chicago Police.

Family members said Luna was just leaving a laundromat when he was shot.

He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy showed he died of multiple gunshot wounds and ruled his death a homicide.

Luna lived in the 3800 block of South Damen.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to pay for funeral expenses and help Luna’s children.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Two-year-old Wayne Dixon and his grandmother Phyllis Peaches were killed in fire in the 3400 block of West Madison when someone burned down the church next door in 2006. Their deaths were ruled homicides, but the case was never solved. | Sun-Times file photo

By SAM CHARLES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

The names of Chicago’s youngest murder victims are often indelibly etched into the city’s collective memory: Hadiya Pendleton, Jonylah Watkins, Tyshawn Lee.

Their stories, despite similar endings, stick out in a city that routinely sees more than 450 murders each year.

But few know Wayne Dixon’s name.

The 2-year-old and his grandmother were among three people killed in their sleep on the West Side in 2004.

It was a brisk Sunday night, not terribly cold by Chicago standards. Some snow lay on the ground and a healthy southerly breeze swept across East Garfield Park.

The normally trigger-happy West Side community slept soundly and not a single shooting was reported anywhere near 3415 W. Madison St. all day.

But that night–Feb. 8, 2004–someone burned down a church.

The extra-alarm fire spread to the apartment building to the west and, ultimately, took three lives. The killer was never caught and a triple homicide that claimed the lives of a 2-year-old boy and his grandmother would go, essentially, unnoticed by the public after authorities took longer than usual to declare the deaths homicides.
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Janet Strickland (left) and William Strickland | Chicago Police

By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

William Strickland was named after his grandfather and lived with the elderly man on the South Side. But the young man was under the influence of another senior living in the home, his grandmother.

When she suggested he should kill off his grandfather so they could spend his money, the younger William Strickland pulled the trigger, Cook County prosecutors said.

William Strickland, 22, was found guilty of his grandfather’s murder after a jury deliberated for 2 1/2 hours Thursday night at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

The bench trial of 67-year-old Janet Strickland, who is alleged to have coaxed the young man to shoot her husband, the elder William Strickland, also took place before Judge James Linn this week. But her trial was continued to March 21.
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Richard Thrasher was fatally shot Thursday morning in the West Side Austin neighborhood.

The 28-year-old was found at 8:38 a.m. unresponsive on the sidewalk in the 1000 block of North Lavergne, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Thrasher, of the 4900 block of West Thomas, suffered gunshot wounds to the head and arm, and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later, authorities said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Twenty-year-old Tiana Brown was fatally shot Wednesday night in the South Side Auburn Gresham neighborhood, but police say the gun may have “accidentally discharged.”

She was in the 7800 block of South Honore about 10 p.m. A man was showing her a weapon that “accidentally discharged,” according to Chicago Police. Brown was struck in the head, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Brown, of the 10200 block of Camden Lane in Bridgeview, was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:50 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

Police said the shooting appeared to be an accident, though an autopsy Thursday ruled Brown’s death a homicide.

No one was in custody as of Thursday afternoon, police said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Alexander Robins | Chicago Police

Three more people have been charged—in addition to a 17-year-old boy—with beating Cary “Mike” Silverstein to death and throwing his body in a Dumpster in the West Ridge neighborhood on the North Side in December.

Shawndre Lehmann, 17, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in connection with the death of the 64-year-old Silverstein, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. Lehmann was 16 at the time of the murder.

Alexander Robinson, 28; and another boy are also charged with first-degree murder, Chicago Police announced Wednesday evening. Shatara Lehmann, 25, was charged with concealment of a homicidal death.

Shatara Lehmann is the brother of Shawndre Lehmann and Robinson’s girlfriend, prosecutors said.

Silverstein hosted a birthday party at his apartment in the 6500 block of North Hoyne about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10, 2015, prosecutors said at Shawndre Lehmann’s bond hearing Wednesday.
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