Homicide Watch Chicago

By MITCHELL ARMENTROUT
Chicago Sun-Times

Marco C. Robertson | Chicago Police

Marco C. Robertson, 26, faces second-degree murder charges for the death of the 44-year-old Rice, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Just before 4 a.m., the pair got into a fight inside a home in the 2100 block of West 54th Street, and it ended with Robertson stabbing Rice multiple times, authorities said.

The older man was pronounced dead at the scene. Robertson was arrested “without incident” by responding officers, police said.
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A man shot to death Tuesday night in the South Side Chatham neighborhood has been identified as 27-year-old Tryce Caver, who lived about two blocks away.

Caver was found by responding officers about 9:30 p.m. in the 7900 block of South Wabash, Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

He had suffered several gunshot wounds and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:02 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

An autopsy Wednesday showed he died of multiple gunshot wounds and ruled the death a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Area South detectives were investigating.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

By JEFF MAYES and TOM SCHUBA
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Quinton Gates | Chicago Police

An 18-year-old charged with killing Lamanta Reese last month in a gang-related shooting in the South Side Englewood neighborhood was ordered held on $1 million bond Friday.

Quinton Gates faces first-degree murder charges for the May 23 shooting of the 19-year-old Reese in the 700 block of West Marquette, Chicago Police announced early Friday.

In bond court later Friday, prosecutors said Gates, an admitted member of the Mac Block Black Disciples, and another person walked up to Reese, a member of the Lowe Life Black Disciples, through a gangway while he was on a porch with a group of friends.

The two gangs were involved in an “ongoing conflict,” according to prosecutors.

Gates, carrying a semiautomatic handgun with an extended clip, put one foot on the steps of the porch, pointed the gun at Reese and fired nearly a dozen shots, prosecutors said.

He then said, “F— Lowe Life” and handed the gun to the other person as they walked away down a gangway, prosecutors said.

Reese was struck a total of 11 times, including gunshots to the head, groin, shoulder and abdomen, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said at the time. Eight shell casing were found at the scene.

The South Shore neighborhood resident was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Multiple witnesses, including people who were on the porch with Reese, identified Gates as the shooter, prosecutors said.

The Englewood resident was arrested Wednesday, and on Friday was ordered held on a $1 million bond.

By ANDY GRIMM
Chicago Sun-Times

Christopher Villegas | Cook County Sheriff’s Dept.

And days after Aliya died, 18-year-old Christopher Villegas allegedly tried to strangle the child’s mother.

Villegas was ordered held without bond Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder for Aliya, who died Feb. 9 after three weeks on life support at Lurie Children’s Hospital.

The child’s mother left Aliya alone with Villegas for several hours on Jan. 17, when she heard the baby “cry out in a strange way” from her father’s bedroom, Assistant State’s Attorney Craig Taczy said at the bond hearing.
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A suspect was in custody early Thursday after a man was stabbed to death in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side.

James E. Rice, 44, was stabbed shortly before 4 a.m. during a fight with the male suspect inside a home in the 2100 block of West 54th Street, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Rice was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. He lived on the same block where the attack happened.

Police said the incident appears to be domestic-related and the suspect was in custody early Thursday.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Seventeen-year-old Kyra Young was killed and a man woun ded Wednesday evening in a drive-by shooting in the South Shore neighborhood.

At 5:03 p.m., three people were inside a red Chevrolet Impala driving west on 79th Street when someone inside a passing vehicle fired shots at them, according to Chicago Police. The Impala then crashed into a light pole in the 1800 block of East 79th Street.

Young suffered a gunshot wound to the body, and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m., police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Known to friends as “Keira Murdaa,” she lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side.

A 20-year-old man shot was shot in the face and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, police said. It was originally reported that he had died as well.

The third passenger in the Impala, a 25-year-old man, suffered injuries in the crash that were not though to be life-threatening, police said. He was taken to Christ, where his condition was stabilized.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

By JEFF MAYES
Homicide Watch Chicago

In one of the bloodiest weeks of the first half of the year, a total of 19 people were murdered in Chicago last week, including a visually-impaired teenager, a man shot to death by his stepson, and two young women who were the victims in murder-suicides.

Sun-Times file photo by Ashlee Rezin

Jervon Morris, 18, was shot in the head about 5:40 p.m. in the 9800 block of South Wallace, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

The special needs student and graduate of Curie Metro High School, lost most of his eyesight as a very young boy, and had other physical and mental impairments. But he loved to play basketball (by sound) and volunteer for kids’ aprogram at the park across the street from his Longwood Manor home.

But he was in the park when he apprently got caught in the crossfire between gang members and was struck in the head, police said. Morris, who lived about a block away, was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:58 p.m.

Two of the other holiday shootings were domestic in nature.

A man and woman were found shot to death Monday morning in a murder-suicide in the South Side Bronzeville neighborhood. Tiara “Chiquita” Goodman, 25; and 32-year-old Marcel Davis were found about 10:50 a.m. in the hallway of her apartment building in the 2900 block of South State, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Both had been shot in the head.
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By ANDY GRIMM
Chicago Sun-Times

Helen Ford | Cook County Sheriff’s Dept.

The dark, revolting images on the massive monitor screen showed Gizzell Ford, just months removed from winning her school spelling bee and collecting a straight-A report card, with piles of trash heaped around her bruised, scarred body.

Then came video of the third-grader, swaying drowsily, her hair askew and eyes distant, as her grandmother and father taunted and shoved her.

More video—the same—except for a rag stuffed in the girl’s mouth.

The girl’s bruises and cuts, one infected and flecked with maggots, were inflicted over a period of months by Gizzell’s grandmother, Helen Ford, who was convicted in March of first-degree murder in Gizzell’s death.

At a sentencing hearing Wednesday, members of Helen Ford’s family—a half-dozen of whom had just testified to Ford’s kindness and good character—averted their eyes from the screen.

Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Romito stared at Ford. “Everyone in this room recoils at that video but her,” Romito said, pointing out Ford.
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Trevontez “Trey” Morris was killed and another man wounded in a drive-by shooting Monday afternoon in the South Side Chatham neighborhood.

The men were walking down the street in the 8900 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue at 12:38 p.m. when someone in a light-colored vehicle began shooting, according to Chicago Police.

Morris, 22, was shot in the back and chest, and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. He died there at 1:12 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the Southwest Side Ashburn neighborhood.

A 36-year-old man was shot in the left thigh and suffered a possible graze wound to the right leg, police said. He was also taken to Christ, where his condition was stabilized.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Devonta Dorsey was shot to death Monday evening in the Fuller Park neighborhood on the South Side.

The 23-year-old was standing on the sidewalk about 7:40 p.m. in the 4400 block of South Shields, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Someone approached him on foot, fired a gun, then drove off in a vehicle

Dorsey was shot in the head, and was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:58 p.m., authorities said.

Dorsey, who had attended Dunbar Vocational High School, was known to friends as “Freaky Molly” and was the father of three children.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire