Father of 5-month-old Angelina Rodriguez gets 85 years for killing the infant to stop her from crying

By MITCHELL ARMENTROUT
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Rigoberto Rodriguez | Chicago Police

Rigoberto Rodriguez | Chicago Police

A man found guilty of repeatedly covering the mouth of his 5-month-old daughter to muffle her crying, leading to severe brain damage and eventually her death, has been sentenced to 85 years in prison.

Rigoberto Rodriguez, 31, was convicted of first-degree murder last year for the death of Angelina Rodriguez, who was found injured at her parents’ Rogers Park home in the 2500 block of West Fitch on April 11, 2013, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Rodriguez and the girl’s mother, 24-year-old Angela Petrov, were drinking Hennessy and listening to music as Angelina was sleeping in her playpen when the girl began to cry, prosecutors said at the couple’s bond hearing.

Petrov picked up the crying baby and gave her a bottle, but she continued crying, so Rodriguez took her from Petrov and put the girl on a bed, prosecutors said.
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Jamar Jackson fatally shot in East Chatham


Jamar Jackson was shot and killed Thursday night in the East Chatham neighborhood on the South Side.

The 22-year-old was standing on a sidewalk just before 8 p.m. in the 7900 block of South Ellis when a grey sedan pulled up and someone inside opened fire, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Jackson, of the 11800 block of South Michigan, was shot in the head, buttocks and right calf. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 8:18 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

Police are investigating whether the shooting was gang-related.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Prosecutors: 89-year-old Josephine Johnson killed when she caught burglar breaking into her home

By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Trae Chatmon | Chicago Police

Trae Chatmon | Chicago Police

An 18-year-old man stabbed 89-year-old Josephine Johnson to death, then set her apartment on fire to cover it up after she caught him breaking into her Washington Park home last week, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Trae Chatmon has been charged with first-degree murder, according to Chicago Police.

Another resident woke to a smell of smoke in the three-story apartment building in the 5100 block of South Michigan Avenue in the early morning hours of Oct. 26, according to prosecutors.

The neighbor had seen 89-year-old Josephine Johnson return home from church the night before. He used a spare key to enter her first-floor apartment to check on her, and that’s where he found her body lying on the floor outside her bedroom, prosecutors said.

Johnson was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 3:03 a.m., authorities said. An autopsy found she died of multiple blunt and sharp force injuries from an assault, and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She also suffered blunt force injuries to her head and burns on her upper torso, prosecutors said.
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Five years in prison for accidental shooting that killed David Kennedy in Hyde Park apartment in 2014

By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Paris Walker-Rush | Cook County sheriff's office

Paris Walker-Rush | Cook County sheriff’s office

A man has been sentenced to five years in prison for accidentally shooting David Kennedy to death last year in a Hyde Park apartment.

Paris D. Walker-Rush, 26, was sentenced to five years Wednesday by Judge Mary Margaret Brosnahan after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, according to Cook County court records.

Kennedy, 24, was found shot in the head in an apartment in the 5200 block of South Cornell about 9 p.m. Nov. 21, 2014, authorities said at the time.

Kennedy, of the 3700 block of South Wood Street, died at the scene. An autopsy confirmed he died from a gunshot wound to the head, and the death was ruled a homicide.

Walker-Rush was arrested without incident immediately after the shooting, police said. A police source said the men were playing with the gun at the time and appeared to fire accidentally.

Walker-Rush, of the 5200 block of South Cornell Avenue, will receive credit for 349 days served in the Cook County jail.

18-year-old man charged with fatal stabbing of 89-year-old Josephine Johnson during Washington Heights robbery


By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Trae Chatmon | Chicago Police

Trae Chatmon | Chicago Police

An 18-year-old man forced his way into 89-year-old Josephine Johnson‘s Washington Park apartment, stabbed her to death, robbed her and then set the apartment on fire, according to Chicago Police.

has been charged with stabbing an elderly woman to death before setting her Washington Park neighborhood apartment on fire last week on the South Side.

Trae Chatmon has been charged with first-degree murder for killing Johnson last week, police said.

Chatmon forced his way into Johnson’s apartment in the 5100 block of South Michigan Avenue during the early hours of Oct. 26, according to police. He struck her in the head with an object and then stabbed her multiple times.
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Two more men charged with fatal shooting of John Short in spat that started with girls arguing over clothes


Two more men have been charged in connection with a shooting that began as an argument between two girls over clothing and ended with John Short dead in Back of the Yards in August.

Robert Nathaniel | Chicago Police

Robert Nathaniel | Chicago Police


Quan Evans, 26; and Quentine Bradley, 29, are each charged with first-degree murder, according to Chicago Police. Robert Nathaniel, 25, was already charged with murder and was ordered held on a $1 million bond Monday.

The argument between the two girls happened Aug. 26, according to prosecutors. A short time later, several adults gathered at a liquor store at 51st and May streets to talk to Bradley and try to quash the bad blood between the parties, prosecutors said. Bradley worked at the liquor store.

The conversation between Bradley and the group did not resolve tensions and the group left the store, prosecutors said. As they walked away, Nathaniel ran into the north alley of 51st and fired a shot at them. They ran away, and Nathaniel returned to the store.
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Mom: Kaylyn Pryor was about to sign her first modeling contract when she was gunned down in Englewood

By MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
Chicago Sun-Times

Kaylyn Pryor | Splash

Kaylyn Pryor | Splash

It was all coming together for 20-year-old North Shore resident Kaylyn Pryor.

The effervescent Evanston Township High School grad, who was attending Robert Morris University, had won the “Mario, Make Me a Model” competition sponsored annually by Chicago’s Mario Tricoci Hair Salons & Day Spas in September.

And she had just signed her first modeling contract. Her breakthrough came from Factor Women Model Management, and she was expected to return the freshly inked agreement to the Chicago agency on Thursday.

All her friends were about to graduate from college, and she was like, ‘At first I was feeling left behind, but you know what, Mom? I’m doing it all in my own time,’” her mother, Royce Pryor, 47, said Tuesday as she made funeral arrangements for the youngest of her two daughters at Kaylyn’s home in Evanston.
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Man who found Tyshawn Lee: ‘Who could shoot a child down like that?’

By STEFANO ESPOSITO, FRANK MAIN AND FRAN SPIELMAN
Chicago Sun-Times

Fliers were being passed out Tuesday offering a reward for information leading to those who shot 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee the day before. A memorial was forming in the alley where Tyshawn was killed. | Stefano Esposito/Sun-Times

Fliers were being passed out Tuesday offering a reward for information leading to those who shot 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee the day before. A memorial was forming in the alley where Tyshawn was killed. | Stefano Esposito/Sun-Times

Chicago Police are investigating whether 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee, who was shot repeatedly at close range and killed, was “lured and targeted” as part of a series of retaliatory gang killings, a law enforcement source said Tuesday.

A Chicago Police source said Tyshawn, who was killed Monday, is related to a gang member who may have been involved in a series of retaliatory killings.

The Chicago Tribune reported police are investigating whether Tyshawn “was killed in retaliation for his father’s alleged role in a gang rivalry.”

The father, Pierre Stokes, told the Tribune he thinks his son was targeted but denied anyone had reason to kill Tyshawn in order to retaliate against him. “I’m not hard to find,” Stokes told the Tribune in an interview Tuesday night.
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Marlon Spivey fatally shot near home in Gage Park


Marlon Spivey was shot to death in the Gage Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side Tuesday evening.

Spivey, 24, was outside in the 5600 block of South Artesian at 6:15 p.m. when two males walked up and shot him in the head, neck, torso and leg, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Spivey, who lived a couple blocks away in the 5600 block of South Campbell, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:28 p.m., authorities said.

Police said the two suspects ran westbound on 56th Street after the shooting.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Aspiring model Kaylyn Pryor fatally shot, teenage boy wounded in drive-by shooting in Englewood


By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Kaylyn Pryor was killed and a 15-year-old boy critically wounded in an Englewood neighborhood drive-by shooting Monday evening on the South Side.

Kaylyn Pryor | Splash

Kaylyn Pryor | Splash


Pryor, 20, who was visiting her grandparents, and was standing outside with the boy in the 7300 block of South May about 6:20 p.m. when someone in a passing vehicle shot them, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Both were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said.

Pryor, who lived in the 400 block of Callan Avenue in Evanston, was shot in the armpit and pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m., authorities said.
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