A Chicago man was found guilty today in the 2003 murder of a food truck operator during a botched stick-up outside Chicago Vocational High School.
The jury deliberated only about 40 minutes before convicting Rudy Thompson, 29, of first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery in the fatal shooting of Francisco Villanueva, 44.
Villanueva was slain on the morning of July 29, 2003, as he sold food from his street catering truck parked in front of the school at 8659 S. Jeffery Blvd..
According to trial testimony, Thompson and several friends had been riding around in a van, selling drugs and smoking marijuana all night when they decided to go over to the high school to buy tacos from the truck vendor.
When they pulled up to the school, Thompson saw Villanueva with a roll of cash in his hand and decided to rob him, according to trial testimony. When Villanueva resisted, Thompson shot him several times with a .30-caliber rifle.
Thompson was charged in 2009 after Chicago police Cold Case detectives developed information from witnesses who named him as the shooter. At the time, he was serving a 54-month prison sentence for an unrelated theft conviction.
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