Man found guilty of 2009 killing of wife, ex-girlfriend and father

A South Side man has been found guilty of murder in a rampage that left his wife and former girlfriend dead and eventually claimed the life of his father.
James Amison was accused of flying into a rage on Dec. 11 and 12, 2009, when he strangled his ex-wife, Takisha Smith, in Steger, shot his father, James Johnson, in Maywood and fatally shot a former girlfriend, Stephanie Reed, in Chicago.
Amison’s father died a little more than a year later.
 A Cook County Criminal Court jury found Amison guilty Thursday night.
A Will County murder case involving his wife was transferred and became part of the Cook County case in which he was accused of killing his father and former girlfriend.
Prosecutors said at the time that Amison was convinced that his wife was having an affair with his father. Amison, now 40, was arrested a short time later after he tried to rob a South Side strip club, only to be shot by a patron.
In his trial this week, defense attorneys tried to paint Amison as delusional, citing a videotaped statement to police in which he said he was convinced his father was having an affair with his wife and that family members had taken life insurance policies out on him and were trying to have him killed.
Amison was found mentally fit for trial last year.

Woman convicted in candy store owner's slaying

A Cook County jury today convicted a 25-year-old woman of first-degree murder in the 2009 slaying of a well-known candy shop owner in West Humboldt Park after he had evicted her friends from an apartment building he owned because of drug and gang activity.
 Kerry Masterson sat stone-faced as the verdict was announced after a little more than two hours of deliberations.
She faces 20 to 60 years in prison for the murder of Michael Norton, who lived in an unincorporated area near Glen Ellyn. She is to be sentenced in December.
Masterson’s co-defendants, Elvin Payton and Beatrice Rosado, pleaded guilty to their roles and were sentenced to 22 and 47 years in prison, respectively.

Gang member convicted in slaying of DePaul student

A Cook County jury today convicted a reputed gang member of fatally shooting a DePaul University honors student and wounding a second individual at a Halloween party in 2009 on Chicago’s West Side.
Narcisco Gatica was charged with firing the fatal shots that killed Francisco “Frankie” Valencia. A co-defendant was previously sentenced to 70 years in prison for giving a loaded gun to Gatica shortly after they were asked to leave the party.
Gatica, 21, was charged with first-degree murder as well as aggravated battery with a firearm in the wounding of partygoer Daisy Camacho, 23.
Prosecutors alleged Gatica, an admitted Maniac Latin Disciple gang member, fired at a group of people down a narrow gangway in retaliation for being kicked out of a Halloween party in the 1700 block of North Rockwell Avenue two years ago.
In his closing argument today, Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Shlifka told jurors to focus on Gatica’s videotaped interview with police two days after the murder, saying his changing story showed the “shifting sands of a guilty mind.”
In the interview Gatica first denied he was near the scene. Later, he admitted being there but fingered his co-defendant, Berly Valladares, as the gunman. He then confessed he was the one seen on surveillance video firing a TEC-9 pistol four or five times at people he thought were rival gang members.
Assistant Public Defender Marijane Placek said Gatica was made the fall guy by his fellow gang members because they knew he was trying to leave that life. Gatica had been wounded in a shooting a year before and had recently become a father for the first time, she said.
Gatica’s statements to police changed because he realized he was being blamed for something he did not do, Placek said.
Shlifka urged jurors to reject that as a desperate attempt to absolve himself of blame.
“Don’t be fooled by his attempts now to escape what he’s already confessed to,” Shlifka said.
Valencia, 21, was a rising star on the DePaul campus. Weeks before his death, he was named a student Lincoln laureate, an annual award given to a student at each of the state's four-year universities who shows excellence in school and extracurricular activities.
Valladares, 22, who was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder for supplying the pistol to Gatica, was sentenced earlier this year to 70 years in prison.

Man sentenced to 70 years for killing teen

A Chicago man was sentenced to 70 years in prison today for killing a teenage girl who was caught in the middle of a squabble on a CTA bus.
Milton Wardlaw was convicted by a jury in July in the 2008 fatal shooting of Kiyanna Salter, 17.
In handing down the sentence, Judge Diane Cannon noted that Wardlaw had already stepped off the bus and was in no danger when he pulled out a gun and fired through the rear exit doors at a man he’d quarreled with after being bumped in the arm.
“Someone had the audacity to brush your arm on a CTA bus, without any malice…and according to you, he has to die,” Cannon said. “As a person who takes (public) transportation, I think I can attest that we should all be dead, according to you.”
Wardlaw, 27, issued a short apology to Salter’s family, calling her death an accident. He also cited his four young children in seeking mercy from the judge.
“I’m deeply sorry. ... I accidentally killed Kiyanna Salter,” said Wardlaw, standing at the defense table in a red jail jumpsuit while Salter’s mother, Kenya Jackson, wept quietly a few feet away.
Salter, a Julian High School senior, and a friend were on a 71st-South Shore bus when Wardlaw exchanged words with another passenger near the rear exit door. The two-day trial centered on video from the bus that showed Wardlaw exit near Cottage Grove Avenue, turn back and fire at least one shot at the rear door. Salter, struck in the head, died at the scene.
 Wardlaw, a Gangster Disciple who was on parole for a weapons conviction at the time of the shooting, testified he was carrying a gun that night for protection because he had been "jumped" days earlier. Wardlaw said the other man on the bus had bumped him and they exchanged words. The other man lifted up his shirt and showed a silver gun stuck in his waistband, Wardlaw said.
Wardlaw said he fired a shot because he was scared.
 "When I got off the bus, it was like fear took over," he testified. "I just reacted."
 Salter had opted to stay in Chicago to graduate from high school even though her mother had recently moved the family to a different neighborhood to get away from gang violence.

.

Parolee found guilty of Christmas Eve slaying

A man who had been on parole for murder was found guilty late Thursday in the fatal shooting of an elderly man he was trying to rob in a restaurant parking lot on Christmas Eve two years ago.
A Cook County jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before convicting Lee Cration, 49, of first-degree murder in the December 24, 2009, slaying of Ralph Elliott at the Popeye's restaurant at 818 E. 47th St., in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood.
Elliott, 79, had just finished putting up his Christmas tree and gone to the restaurant to pick up food that he and his wife of 54 years, Dolores, had ordered for their annual Christmas Eve party.
According to trial testimony and police reports, Ralph Elliott had loaded the food into his car at about 4 p.m. when a man dressed in a black trench coat walked up and shot him in the face and chest, then rifled through his pockets looking for valuables.
Based on witness descriptions, Cration was arrested less than five minutes later at 47th Street and Drexel Boulevard, about a block from the murder scene. Authorities said a revolver found in his bag matched the one used in the shooting, and several witnesses identified him as the gunman.
At the time of the slaying, Cration had been on parole for about a year after serving most of a 28-year sentence for a 1984 murder. He was still on the streets despite an active warrant for his arrest that had been issued because of repeated failures to comply with the conditions of his parole, authorities said.

Man convicted for '03 killing of food vendor

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.

Man convicted in slaying of U of C doctoral student

A Cook County jury late Monday convicted a man of first-degree murder in the slaying of a University of Chicago doctoral student during a botched robbery nearly four years ago.
Demetrius Warren, 21, was also found guilty of armed robbery and aggravated discharge of a firearm in the November 2007 shooting death of Amadou Cisse, a Senegal native who was accosted by Warren and a crew of stick-up men who were allegedly prowling the area around the Hyde Park campus looking to carry out “licks,” or robberies.

Trial to begin in slaying of U. of C. grad student from Senegal

Testimony is scheduled to begin today in the trial of Demetrius Warren, accused in the slaying of Amadou Cisse, a Sengalese graduate student at the University of Chicago who was fatally shot in the early morning hours of Nov. 17, 2008, when he was walking home near the Hyde Park campus.
Testimony is scheduled to begin today in the trial of Demetrius Warren.
Earlier that night, Cisse had attended a small celebration in honor of his completing all the requirements necessary for him to earn a doctorate in chemistry.
According to a court filing by prosecutors, Warren gave a videotaped statement to police in which he admitted riding in the car used in the crime spree.
He also acknowledged using a gun to take property from one of the victims and giving instructions to "co-offenders about stopping the car to do robberies,".

Man convicted of killing bank teller during Chatham bank robbery

An accused head of a stick-up crew that robbed small restaurants and banks at gunpoint was found guilty today by a federal jury in Chicago of fatally shooting a bank teller during a 2007 holdup of a South Side bank.  
David Vance gunned down teller Tramaine Gibson, 23, after he was unable to open a vault during the robbery at the Illinois Service Federal Savings and Loan in Chatham in May 2007. Two accomplices engaged in a shootout with a security guard, wounding him and an elderly customer in the bank.
Vance's co-defendant, Alton Marshall, who pleaded guilty to avert the death penalty, testified for the prosecution, identifying Vance as an accomplice.

White trash guilty of 2nd-degree murder in death of white trash street artist vandal

A Criminal Court judge today found a man guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal 2008 stabbing of a street artist in Chicago.
In rejecting a first-degree murder conviction, Judge Thomas Hennelly ruled that Kirk Tobolski had acted with "sudden and intense passion" when he stabbed Brendan Scanlon during a melee in an alley.
Tobolski, who has been free on $500,000 bond since October 2008, hung his head after Hennelly announced the verdict.
He waved to family members as deputies took him into custody.
Police found Scanlon dead with a stab wound to the heart on June 14, 2008 in the 3000 block of West Palmer Boulevard.
According to testimony during the trial the trouble early that morning began after police broke up a house party across from the OhNo!Doom art gallery, where Scanlon and his roommate, James Cackovic, had attended an exhibition.
As the crowd from the busted party milled at Lyndale Street and Sacramento Avenue, Scanlon and Cackovic attacked and pummeled Neil Barakat, whom they'd recognized from an altercation during a gathering at their apartment months earlier.
Prosecutors said even though Scanlon had started the initial fight, it could have ended there. But moments later, another altercation broke out in the alley where Scanlon had fled.
It was during that melee when Tobolski pulled out a switchblade -- a birthday present he'd gotten just a week before -- and stabbed Scanlon once in the chest as he was being pinned by another man, prosecutors said.
Tobolski's attorney painted Scanlon as the aggressor in a "classic Chicago street fight."
"This was a fight caused and instigated by people who were with the victim, and by the victim himself," Beuke told the court in his opening statement.  
Scanlon grew up in Madison, Wis., and went to art school in Chicago. Using the alias "SOLVE," he was known across Chicago for his art, which often appeared in unusual places -- on the backs of stop signs, on the glass of newspaper boxes and, on one famous occasion, stenciled on a TV secretly installed on a CTA train.

Fool found guilty in 2008 slaying of girl on CTA bus

A Chicago man was convicted of murder Wednesday in the 2008 fatal shooting on a CTA bus of a 17-year-old girl who was caught in the middle of a minor squabble that turned violent.
A jury deliberated for 5 1/2 hours before finding Milton Wardlaw, 27, guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm in the shooting of Kiyanna Salter, a Julian High School senior.Salter and her friend, Jasmine Wilcox, were on board a 71st-South Shore bus when Wardlaw exchanged words with another passenger near the rear exit door.

The two-day trial centered on surveillance video from the bus that showed Wardlaw exit the bus near Cottage Grove Avenue, turn back and fire at least one shot at the rear door. Salter was struck in the head and died at the scene.
Wardlaw admitted in testimony Wednesday that he was carrying a gun that night -- for protection because he had been “jumped” days earlier in his neighborhood. Wardlaw said the other man on the bus had bumped him and they exchanged words. The other man lifted up his shirt and showed a silver gun stuck in the waistband.
“He said, ‘Man, I’ll shoot you in the (expletive) face,’” Wardlaw said. “He looked at me real ugly, real mean, like he was trying to put fear in my heart.”
Wardlaw said he fired a shot at the back door because he was scared. “When I got off the bus, it was like fear took over,” he testified. “I just reacted.”
Assistant Public Defender Ruth McBeth said in her closing argument Wednesday that Wardlaw was admittedly “a bit rough around the edges” but acted in self defense that night.
“When it’s a person showing you a gun when you just had an argument about who bumped whom, that is threatening,” McBeth said. “That is physical intimidation.”

But Assistant State’s Attorney David Weiner argued Wardlaw was solely to blame for the violence. “This is the person who started the conflict, this is the person who took it a notch higher, and this is the person who decided he was going to end the conflict,” Weiner said of Wardlaw

Split verdict in 2007 shooting of Chicago detective

A Cook County jury today acquitted a South Side man of attempted murder of a police officer but found him guilty of aggravated battery with a firearm in the shooting of a Chicago detective during a chase more than four years ago.

The jury deliberated nearly seven hours before returning the split verdict for Bobby Selvie, according to court officials.
Selvie, who turns 27 on Saturday, faces 15 to 60 years in prison on the battery count, according to Andy Conklin, spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

Prosecutors said the detective and his partner were investigating gang activity on the South Side in May 2007 when they tried to stop Selvie and two other men for a field interview.

The men ran and the detectives chased them to Selvie’s house in the 800 block of West 50th Place, prosecutors said. As the detective followed one of the men toward the side of the house, Selvie allegedly fired, striking the detective in the back.

Selvie is currently on parole for separate drunk driving and weapons convictions, for which he was sentenced to 6 years in prison in 2009.

The detective, who was in serious condition after the shooting but has since recovered, testified at the beginning of Selvie's four-day trial.

Selvie’s brother, Michael Selvie, 38, was sentenced to 55 years in prison last year in the 2006 slaying of former Chicago Bear Tank Johnson's bodyguard, Willie B. Posey, at a Near North nightclub.

Man guilty in 2006 murder of KFC clerk

A formerly homeless man with dozens of arrests on his record has been convicted in the murder during a robbery of a KFC restaurant employee five years ago and faces at least 45 years in prison, according to prosecutors and court records.

Larry Barlow, 51, was convicted Thursday of the first-degree murder of Antoinette Means, 19, 8400 S. Colfax Ave., who was shot late in the afternoon of June 25, 2006 inside the KFC restaurant at 83rd Street and South Chicago Avenue, according to court records.

A jury deliberated about an hour before convicting Barlow, said Cook County state’s attorney’s spokesman Andy Conklin.

Barlow was recorded by the KFC’s surveillance camera less than an hour before Means was killed there and returned to the store to rob it, then turned back to fire a shot that killed Means, prosecutors said.

Barlow has dozens of arrests on his record. He was convicted in 1982 and 1999 on burglary charges and in 1986 on an aggravated criminal sexual assault charge.

Barlow faces 45 years to life in prison when he is sentenced July 7, Conklin said.

Final defendant guilty in fatal Fenger beating

Shortly after watching a jury convict the final defendant Wednesday in the videotaped beating death of her son outside Fenger High School, Anjanette Albert was asked whether the grieving process might get easier with the trials now behind her.

She stood in the lobby of the Cook County Criminal Courts Building, struggling to find words to express the loss of Derrion, 16
No," she said haltingly, "I don't think it's ever going to get any easier, with him not being here."

Lapoleon Colbert was the fifth person to be convicted of first-degree murder in Derrion Albert's death in a September 2009 melee that made worldwide news after the brutal video went viral on the Internet.

After a two-day trial, the jury of 11 women and one man deliberated a little more than two hours before reaching its decision.

As the verdict was read, Colbert, now 20, stared straight ahead with his hands clasped on the defense table, his eyes slowly welling with tears. He faces 20 to 60 years in prison when he is sentenced July 19.

Outside court, Colbert's father, Anthony Dawson, said he was saddened but stood behind his son, whom he described as a good kid who was doing well in school.

"It was a bad moment in life, which all of us have sometime," Dawson said. "It's just a tragedy. I'll tell him to hold his head up as high as he can."

Colbert, at the time a senior at Fenger with no criminal record, was seen on the infamous video kicking Albert in the head and then stomping on his body as he lay defenseless on the pavement, prosecutors said. The melee broke out among Fenger students from the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex and rivals from "The Ville" neighborhood near the school.
Albert's mother said Wednesday that as has hard as it has been to watch the video of her son's murder over and over in court, she was thankful the tape existed.

"If we didn't have that tape, we probably wouldn't have gotten everyone involved in this," she said. "So I'll watch it."

In his closing argument, Colbert's attorney, Michael Clancy, said his client "made a horrible, stupid, disgusting mistake" but that he was not participating in a mob beating as prosecutors charged. He said Colbert was merely trying to walk home with a friend when he was swept up in the melee.

"He's not guilty of being a part of that mob that killed Derrion Albert," Clancy said. "They can point to that tape all they want, but it's obvious … there were two groups fighting and Lapoleon Colbert was part of neither."

Clancy also called on jurors to "tell your government" that it was not OK to punish a young man for the failings of the city, public school system and other adults in creating the violent environment that led to Albert's death, an environment that was beyond Colbert's control, he said.

Assistant State's Attorney Kathy Bankhead mocked that assertion.

"There are some things that are beyond our control in this life –- how we act is not one of them," Bankhead told jurors. "That, we can control … that, we must control."

Four others have already been convicted of Albert's murder. Eugene Riley, 20, is scheduled to be sentenced this month; Eric Carson, 18, has been sentenced to 26 years in prison; Silvonus Shannon, 21, received 32 years in prison; and a 15-year-old boy was found guilty in Juvenile Court and will remain imprisoned until his 21st birthday.

Albert's grandfather Norman Golliday said he sympathizes with the predicament the defendants found themselves in, where the potential for violence loomed over everything, including just getting to and from school.

The family said the city has shown some strides since the Fenger brawl in providing safe passage for students, but in Albert's case, it's "too little, too late," he said.

Anjanette Albert called the entire tragedy heartbreaking.

"I hate that we're all losing our children," she said

1 convicted, 1 acquitted in 2008 slaying

One man was acquitted and one convicted today in the August 2008 slaying of a pizzeria manager mistaken for a rival gang member on the Near West Side.

Anthony Collazo, 19, was acquitted by a Cook County jury of first-degree murder after a three-day trial before Judge Stanley Sacks. The judge convicted co-defendant Gabriel Contreras, 28, of first-degree murder after hearing the evidence in a simultaneous bench trial.
Sentencing for Contreras is set for June 13.

Prosecutors said the defendants, both Satan Disciples, were out for revenge after Contreras had been shot in the shoulder by a member of the rival C-note gang.

The victim, Jason Mueller, was walking at Grand and Wolcott Avenues on Aug. 10, 2008 about 5:30 a.m. trying to hail a cab after he drove a friend’s car home from Religion nightclub at 720 N. Wells St. Prosecutors alleged the defendants mistook him for a C-note, walked up to him and Collazo shot him.

The state’s case rested primarily on third-party admissions that Collazo allegedly made to two people in the months following the shooting, one of them to a paid confidential informant for the police, the other to a fellow gang member who testified to a grand jury about Collazo’s admission.

Collazo’s attorney, Joseph Lopez, said in his opening that “nobody really knows who killed this individual, but it wasn’t Anthony Collazo. There is no physical evidence, no scientific evidence that ties my client to the scene.”

Mueller, who helped operate Nonna's Pizza in the Old Town neighborhood, was apparently walking to Grand Avenue to catch a cab home after escorting home a friend, with whom he had been drinking, when he was shot in the street.

"This guy had zero enemies," Walt Oestmann, a roommate and a fraternity brother from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told the Tribune shortly after the shooting.

Mueller, who grew up in the Mt. Greenwood neighborhood on the Far Southwest Side, did not have any gang affiliations or a criminal record, police said.

Family of murdered Fenger student watches as fourth defendant is convicted

Derrion Albert's family has watched the videotape of his murder near Fenger High School dozens of times in court over the last several months, the shaky images of that day in September 2009 playing out repeatedly at regular speed, in slow motion and frame by frame.
First the vicious downswing of a wooden board slams the boyish-looking sophomore in the head. Then a punch to the face leaves him sprawled on the pavement. Finally, the mob moves in, kicking and stomping him into unconsciousness. The images never change.
On Tuesday, the family was in court again as the fourth of five defendants charged in the attack was convicted of Albert's murder — made infamous by the grainy video that went viral and came to symbolize the problem of youth violence in Chicago.
A Cook County jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before convicting Eugene Riley, now 20, of first-degree murder. The videotape showed Riley strike the semiconscious victim with a board.
With one more defendant left to stand trial, Albert's grandfather, Norman Golliday, said family members were looking forward to putting the ordeal behind them.
"This whole process is toxic for us, going through it over and over again," Golliday said in the lobby of the Criminal Courts Building after the verdict. "The healing won't start until we are done with this."
The months of court hearings have been particularly hard on Albert's mother, Anjanette, Golliday said. She has attended every day of the trials, excusing herself only during graphic testimony about the massive head injuries suffered by her son.
Riley's family, including his mother, Sherry Smith, and brother Vashion Bullock, declined to speak to reporters after his conviction.
Riley, who was 18 at the time of the murder, testified Monday that he got caught up in the melee between his friends from the Altgeld Gardens public housing project and Fenger students from the "Ville" neighborhood near the South Side school. Riley said he was scared and swung the board in self-defense and to protect his brother, who had been attacked by the mob.
During closing arguments, Assistant Public Defender David McMahon urged the jury to judge the chaotic scene in its entirety. By slowing down the video and presenting some scenes frame by frame, prosecutors gave a "distorted" view of the brief sequence in which Riley struck Albert, McMahon said.
"For five seconds out of this whole scene, Eugene Riley makes that mistake," McMahon said. "It's a reaction."
In her rebuttal, Assistant State's Attorney Kathy Bankhead said the video showed that Riley's actions contributed to Albert's death.
"A 'mistake' is not a defense," Bankhead said. "'It happened too quickly' is not a defense."
Under Illinois' felony murder statute, prosecutors did not need to prove that Riley intended to kill Albert, just that he committed a crime that led to Albert's death — mob action in this case.
Judge Nicholas Ford set sentencing for June 14. Riley faces up to 60 years in prison.
Eric Carson, 18, pleaded guilty in January to Albert's murder and was sentenced to 26 years in prison, while Silvonus Shannon, 21, was convicted at trial and received 32 years. In December, a 15-year-old boy was found guilty of murder in Juvenile Court and will remain imprisoned until his 21^st birthday.
The final defendant, Lapoleon Colbert, 20, is scheduled to go on trial this month.
Golliday said he sympathizes with all the young men facing years in custody. But for his family, there is some solace in knowing there is "just one more to go."
"Then we can start to get back to a sense of normalcy," he said. "The hard part is we'll have to do that without Derrion."

Rape conviction returned after 45 minutes

A Cook County jury deliberated less than an hour today before convicting a former postal worker in the abduction and rape of a 16-year-old girl on Chicago’s South Side.

The five-man, seven-woman jury found Tommie Naylor, 43, guilty of aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping and criminal sexual assault in the November 2008 attack after deliberating for just 45 minutes.

Naylor, seated at a defense table dressed in dark suit and tie, showed no emotion as the verdicts were read.

The three-day trial centered on testimony from the victim –- now 18 -- as well as testimony from two other girls that Naylor is charged with assaulting under similar circumstances. Naylor has been charged with kidnapping and raping a total of five girls between 2003 and 2008.

The other victims were allowed to testify under an Illinois statute allowing evidence that demonstrates a defendant has a "propensity to commit sex offenses."

One victim, who was 16 at the time she was raped in 2006, testified she was standing at a bus stop on 75th Street on her way to a shopping mall in the middle of the afternoon when a man she later identified as Naylor suddenly grabbed her by the arm as he brandished a screwdriver.
 
"He said, 'Get in the car or I will kill you,' " she testified.

As he drove through an alley, she pleaded with him to let her go. He promised he wasn't going to rape her, saying, "I'm better than that," the woman recalled. But he soon stopped the car and sexually assaulted her, she said.

Naylor was arrested in 2009 at the south suburban mail-sorting facility where he worked. Detectives had matched his vehicle to a partial license plate number from one alleged victim. DNA matched him to each of the five sexual assaults, prosecutors said.

Naylor is due back in court on June 3. Four other sexual assault cases against him are still pending.

Man convicted in fatal carjacking of widower

Chicago man with a long criminal record was convicted today of killing an 88-year-old widower on his way to reconnect with an old flame.

After a three-day bench trial, Criminal Court Judge James Obbish found Kenneth Starr guilty of felony murder and aggravated vehicular hijacking in the September 2008 death of Jacint Calderazzo, according to the Cook County state's attorney's office.

Starr, 36, formerly of the 4800 block of West Congress Parkway, faces between 20 and 60 years in prison, state's attorney spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said.

Prosecutors said Calderazzo was standing outside of his car in the parking lot of a Southwest Side drug store near Midway Airport when Starr -- a felon with previous convictions for drugs, home invasion and aggravated battery -- shoved him aside and climbed into the older man's Buick.

As Calderazzo, an aerial photographer in World War II, gathered himself behind behind his car, prosecutors said Starr sped backwards, striking and running over Calderazzo to make his escape. Calderazzo, of Valparaiso, Ind., was later pronounced dead at a suburban hospital.
Streamwood police later arrested Starr, who had some of Calderazzo's credit cards on him, authorities said.
The spry grandfather of eight was in Chicago to meet up with an old girlfriend to whom he was once engaged. The couple hoped to rekindle an old romance that began six decades prior, according to Calderazzo’s family.

Man convicted in Russian roulette shooting

A Chicago man faces up to 30 years in prison after being convicted of shooting a woman in the face while playing Russian roulette.

Dontae Jones was convicted of aggravated battery and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. He will be sentenced June 24 and faces six to 30 years in prison.

Jones put a bullet in a gun being used for Russian roulette while visiting a home in Normal, according to Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer McCoskey. The gun fired and struck the woman in her jaw.

In a recording played at the trial, Jones said he put the bullet in the gun to scare the woman.

32 years in Fenger beating death

Silvonus Shannon is a soft-spoken, helpful guy who doesn’t hold a grudge, his relatives and former English teacher testified Thursday.

That’s why they were taken aback when they saw the young South Side man take a flying leap before kicking 16-year-old Derrion Albert in the head in the infamous videotaped beating outside Fenger High School.

“I was totally in shock,” said Shannon’s uncle, Diallo Smith, in asking Cook County Judge Nicholas Ford to give Shannon a lenient sentence for his role in Albert’s murder.

But a stern Ford ordered Shannon be held behind bars for 32 years, noting that Shannon crossed a “hard line in the sand” when he joined the mob in attacking Albert well after the teenager was sprawled out on the pavement.

In a brawl, “once a man is down, [the rule is] he wasn’t assaulted anymore. He’s out of it,” Ford said, agreeing with prosecutor James Papa’s assessment that Albert was “helpless” on the afternoon of Sept. 24, 2009.

Shannon, 20, bowed his head down and wiped away tears in the courtroom where Ford chastised him for not walking away when the punches were thrown in a fight between students from Altgeld Gardens and a neighborhood known as “The Ville.”

Minutes before he was sentenced, Shannon turned toward Albert’s family and apologized.

“Being pegged as this ‘monster’ and ‘murderer’ that some people think of me, often it makes me cry and gets the best of me,” he said, reading from a poem he composed.

“ . . . I do have decency and I have great empathy for the whole Albert family. They should know I send my deepest condolences to them and I mean that genuinely.”

Shannon’s attorney, Robert Byman, who vowed to appeal the conviction, told Ford that while Shannon may have “snapped,” his actions leading to the honor student’s death lasted a mere 11 seconds.

Ford allowed Shannon to embrace his weeping mother before sheriff deputies escorted him away.

Albert’s grandfather, Norman Golliday, said he thinks Shannon and the others charged with his grandson’s death might have behaved differently if they had known the harsh consequences.

“He [Shannon] may have been sincere. I won’t doubt that, but it doesn’t help us. He still gets to see his family on visitor’s day, and he still gets to graduate from high school. Derrion can’t graduate,” Golliday said.

In December, a juvenile boy was found delinquent, or guilty, in Albert’s murder, and last month Eric Carson, 18, was sentenced to 26 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to murder.

Two others, Eugene Riley and Lapoleon Colbert, are scheduled to stand trial in May.