Prosecutor: On Valentine's Day 2013 he committed armed robbery; on Valentine's Day 2016, he killed Jeremy Hunter and Steven Tate

Jeff Mayes — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 11:23:30 -0500

By MITCHELL ARMENTROUT and ANDY GRIMM
Chicago Sun-Times

Marquise Hollerway | Chicago Police

A 22-year-old Chicago man—paroled last year for an armed robbery on Valentine’s Day in 2013—has been charged with killing Jeremy D. Hunter and Steven Tate this past Valentine’s Day on the South Side.

Marquise Hollerway faces two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Feb. 14 shooting deaths.

A neighbor found the bodies of the 25-year-old Hunter, who’d been shot in the head; and the 26-year-old Tate, who was shot multiple times, just before 11 a.m. Feb. 14 inside an apartment in the 5000 block of South Champlain Avenue.

Witnesses told police they saw Hollerway leave the apartment moments after hearing gunfire, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Liam Reardon said at a hearing Saturday where a judge ordered the suspected killer held without bond.

Jeremy D. Hunter | Facebook

The witnesses said Hollerway drove off in a silver car—a description that fit a car caught on video by a police surveillance camera, according to Reardon, who said Hollerway has a silver Mercury Sable.

Police found Hollerway’s car parked on a street two weeks later, and a forensic examination turned up traces of gunpowder residue inside, according to Reardon, adding that Hollerway never contacted police to try to track down his car.

Cellphone records showed Hollerway’s phone “pinged” off a tower near the apartment around the time of the shooting, Reardon said. A relative also said he had seen Hollerway at the apartment in December, and that Hollerway was carrying a .40-caliber pistol at the time. A magazine for a .40-caliber was found in the apartment after the shooting, Reardon said.

Steven Tate | Facebook

Hunter lived on the block where he was killed. Tate lived in the 6500 block of South Drexel.

Hollerway was arrested at his home Thursday morning in the 8100 block of South Sangamon in Auburn Gresham.

He’d been released on parole in June 2015 from the Big Muddy River Correctional Center in downstate Ina after being sentenced to a four-year prison term for a Valentine’s Day 2013 armed robbery in Chicago, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections and Cook County court records.

His home address at the time of that arrest was listed a block north of where Tate and Hunter were killed this year.

Steven Tate | Homicide Watch Chicago

Prosecutor: On Valentine's Day 2013 he committed armed robbery; on Valentine's Day 2016, he killed Jeremy Hunter and Steven Tate