No charges
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Chicago police officers were watching closely as the 19-year-old left his home in Auburn Gresham on Monday and drove off with a loaded handgun allegedly tucked under his seat.
The teen was suspected of fatally shooting three relatives at their Morgan Park home last year and sexually assaulting the oldest victim, 81-year-old Arteria Riley. With DNA evidence recovered from her body, the cops believed they had probable cause to make an arrest, according to a police report.
They sought to charge him with first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault, but prosecutors weren’t convinced. By Wednesday, Assistant State’s Attorney Jeannine Guzolek made it clear that the teen would face only a felony gun charge for the weapon that was recovered, the report shows.The state’s attorney’s office declined to comment and referred questions to police. A police spokesperson would only say the investigation is ongoing. The Sun-Times is not identifying the teen because he hasn’t been charged with the murders.
Arteria Riley, her daughter, Thomas Ann Riley, 64, and her son, Ruben Riley, 61, were found shot to death when officers conducted a well-being check at their home in the 11300 block of South Green Street on April 5, 2022. Police said the motive for the killings was unclear.
Arteria Riley was a retired postal worker and widow who raised her family at the home, according to neighbors. Her daughter worked as a secretary and finance manager at St. Philip Neri School. When she didn’t show up for work that week, people grew concerned.
“They are the kind of people who would give you the shirt off their backs,” one neighbor said. “I have no idea why they would meet such a violent end.”
The teen’s arrest report notes he was “identified as a participant of the murders,” and his DNA was recovered from Arteria Riley’s body. It’s unclear what additional evidence prosecutors are seeking from police.
At his initial court hearing in the gun case Thursday, prosecutors said officers stopped the teen while he was driving a Nissan Pathfinder and saw him reaching for something. He was taken into custody, and a handgun was found in the SUV with one round in the chamber, prompting a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon, according to the police report.
He had previously been arrested during another traffic stop in October 2021 when he was found with nearly 60 grams of weed and a handgun with an extended magazine, according to an arrest report. He was hit with four felony gun charges and pleaded guilty to one of them in January 2022, earning two years of probation that he hasn’t completed.
During Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors neglected to tell Judge Barbara Dawkins that officers were surveilling the teen because he was the suspect in a triple homicide. Dawkins had to learn that detail by reading the arrest report, and she accused prosecutors of playing “hide the ball” with the facts of the case.
“Did you plan on telling me that?” an annoyed Dawkins asked prosecutors. “It’s important for me to know.”
Prosecutors said the investigation was ongoing and was of a sensitive nature. The teen “had not been formally charged,” an assistant state’s attorney noted.
On probation for a felony gun charge.
Suspected of fatally shooting 3 relatives.
Suspected sexual assault of an 81 years old (DNA evidence)
Suspected of ANOTHER felony gun charge. -
Myyyy Kind of Town, Chicago is…
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@Mik said in No charges:
Tell me about the prosecutor in this case.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Foxx
Kimberly M. Foxx (née Anderson;[1] born April 4, 1972) is an American politician, who is currently the State's Attorney (district attorney) for Cook County, Illinois. She manages the second largest prosecutor's office in the United States, consisting of approximately 700 attorneys and 1,100 employees. In 2016, she won the Democratic nomination for State's Attorney against incumbent Anita Alvarez and went on to win the general election. She was re-elected in 2020. In 2023, she announced that she would not run for re-election in 2024.
Foxx ran for the State's Attorney's office on a platform of criminal justice reform, and has often been termed a "reformist", "reform-minded", or "progressive" prosecutor alongside others such as Larry Krasner, Rachael Rollins, Chesa Boudin, Aramis Ayala, Kimberly Gardner, Diana Becton, and Satana Deberry. She is the second African American, after Cecil A. Partee, to hold this position.
In March 2017, shortly after taking office, Foxx announced that the State's Attorney's office would no longer pursue keeping certain detainees in jail because they are unable to post the bail amount of $1000.[40] Foxx expressed support for the proposed Bail Reform Act, testifying in favor of it at the Illinois General Assembly despite opposition to the bill from the Illinois State’s Attorneys’ Association.[41] The legislation passed in June 2017 and removed the requirement to post cash bail for those charged with minor crimes.[42] That same month, Foxx's office announced that prosecutors would no longer request pretrial detention for those charged with low-level nonviolent offenses in court.
A series of reports by The People's Lobby and Reclaim Chicago, progressive organizations who had endorsed Foxx in 2016, found that the number of sentences involving prison time in Cook County dropped 2.5% from 2016 to 2017 and 19% from 2017 to 2018.[48][49][50]
An October 2019 report by The Marshall Project found that since taking office, Foxx "turned away more than 5,000 cases that would have been pursued by previous State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, mostly by declining to prosecute low-level shoplifting and drug offenses and by diverting more cases to alternative treatment programs."[51][52] Foxx has directed her office to not prosecute shoplifting cases under $1,000 as felonies.
In 2020, during the George Floyd protests, Foxx issued a department-wide policy to decriminalize protesting, instructing prosecutors to distinguish peaceful protestors from "individuals who intentionally cause harm or damage." The policy adopted a "presumption of dismissal" for certain low-level charges (e.g. disorderly conduct, public demonstration, unlawful gathering, curfew violation) and a "presumption against proceeding unless body-worn camera footage is available and/or where a police officer is the complainant" for more serious charges (e.g. resisting or obstructing arrest, assault, battery, aggravated battery, mob action, obstructing identification) that arose during protests.
In April 2023, after two car thieves, age 14 and 17, drove recklessly and killed Cristian Uvidia, an innocent person who was in another vehicle, ABC News Chicago said, “The two have been charged with just one misdemeanor count of criminal trespassing each.”
I commented on that last case here.
