- #WICKED TOWN TRAVELING VICE LORDS SERIAL#
- #WICKED TOWN TRAVELING VICE LORDS TRIAL#
- #WICKED TOWN TRAVELING VICE LORDS SERIES#
Last week, Durkin also suspended all jail phone privileges for Lee, who was accused by prosecutors of violating orders and attempting to reach out to potential witnesses in the case, court records show.
#WICKED TOWN TRAVELING VICE LORDS TRIAL#
District Judge Thomas Durkin granted prosecutors’ request for jurors to remain anonymous, and phones and other electronics have been banned for the general public from both the trial courtroom and an overflow room where spectators can watch a video feed. Nearly a dozen other members of the Wicked Town gang have pleaded guilty in the case, and several are expected to testify during the two-month trial. If convicted, they each could face life in prison. Lee is also charged with two counts of murder in the aid of racketeering, while Benson faces one count of aggravated assault in furtherance of the conspiracy.
Lee, 41, and Benson, 31, are each charged with racketeering conspiracy and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. The trial comes as authorities continue to grapple with an alarmingly high number of shootings and homicides in the city, which are down slightly this year but still have given Chicago a national reputation for an out-of-control gun culture.
#WICKED TOWN TRAVELING VICE LORDS SERIES#
The Wicked Town case is one of a series of conspiracy indictments brought by federal authorities in recent years that use the racketeering statute to hold Chicago’s street gangs accountable for a seemingly endless cycle of violence. We will get there all the failures of proof in the government’s case.” “The evidence will come in witness by witness, but we will get there. “This case will not be a sprint, unfortunately, it’s going to be a marathon,” Shobat said. Wood and defense attorney Steven Shobat, who represents Benson, also said prosecutors have little or no evidence tying their clients to some of the shootings, while others may have been the result of self-defense or mistaken identification.
#WICKED TOWN TRAVELING VICE LORDS SERIAL#
Some of them are serial killers and admitted liars, while others have been paid by the government both in money and in promises of reduced sentences, attorney Lisa Wood, who represents Lee, said in her opening statement. “For close to 20 years, Wicked Town terrorized the West Side of Chicago with brazen acts of violence, in cold blood, out in the open and in broad daylight,” Arce said.Īttorneys for Lee and Benson, however, said the prosecution’s case is built largely on the testimony of other Wicked Town members who are cooperating with authorities in order to get a break in their own cases. In many cases, the violence was carried out in a way that sent a message to others about who controlled the gang’s territory on North Leamington Avenue, he said. Attorney Jimmy Arce said in his opening remarks to jurors. The victims included rival gang members, informants and innocent bystanders alike, Assistant U.S.
Prosecutors alleged the gang that Lee and Benson were part of a criminal enterprise responsible for a “devastating” amount of violence over nearly a 20-year period, including 19 murders as well as dozens of armed robberies and assaults dating back to at least July 2000. That chilling statement was presented to jurors opening statements Monday as the racketeering conspiracy trial of Lee and one of his lieutenants, Torance Benson, got underway at the Dirksen U.S. “Yes, you know why? Because Don Don signed up on the dotted line,” Lee allegedly replied in the video-recorded interview. So, the question the agent asked Lee was simple: Did Holmes and Taylor deserve what they got? Lee was not at the scene that night, but as the leader of Wicked Town, a notoriously violent faction of the Traveling Vice Lords, he’d instituted a strict “no snitch” rule, and made perfectly clear that violating it was punishable by death, according to federal prosecutors. and Diane Taylor, had been lured to a West Side alley in 2018 and shot in the back of the head at point-blank range, allegedly by two gang associates who believed Holmes had been talking to law enforcement. Shortly after he was arrested in 2021 on racketeering conspiracy charges, reputed Wicked Town gang leader Donald Lee was asked by a federal agent about the execution-style slayings of a suspected police informant and his girlfriend a few years earlier.
Add To Favorites ‘Wicked Town’ gang faction caused ‘devastating’ amount of violence, prosecutors say as RICO trial opens
0 kommentar(er)
