Four days after two men were dragged from their van and beaten to death after crashing into several women on the South Side, Cook County prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges Saturday against seven accused gang members and offered new details on an act of street vigilantism that stunned the city.
After sorting through dozens of witness statements and spending hours trying to reconstruct the chaotic minutes of the attack, authorities alleged those charged were leaders of the enraged throng that killed Jack Moore, 62, and Anthony Stuckey, 49. The men were beaten by as many as 20 people after their rented van went out of control and crashed into a stoop at East 40th Street and South Lake Park Avenue. Authorities signaled more charges could be forthcoming.
Police said four of the suspects gave videotaped confessions implicating themselves in the attack.
Those accused included a 16-year-old high school freshman who works at a fast-food restaurant and a 43-year-old man known for selling Christmas trees. Many who know them disputed the charges Saturday, alleging the investigation has felt the effects of political pressure and has relied on finger-pointing and circumstantial physical evidence.
Still, an outraged Cook County judge ordered the two youngest of the seven held without bail Saturday after an afternoon hearing, calling the incident “brutal, inhuman and vicious.”
“They reacted to an auto accident by killing two fellow citizens, and that cannot be tolerated,” Judge Nicholas Ford said of the mob and its two alleged members who stood before him. “If this is their idea of justice, they’re in the wrong city.”
Appearing in court were Antonio Fort, 16, of the 3900 block of South Lake Park Avenue, and Robert Tucker, 20, of the 800 block of West 41st Street, who told police he works in construction. Both wore sullen expressions and the same clothing their attorneys said they were wearing when taken into custody Tuesday.
Fort was charged as an adult and could face a life sentence if convicted. Tucker could be eligible for the death penalty.
Also charged were brothers Henry Lawrence, 47, and Roosevelt Lawrence, 43; James Ousley, 31, Ricky Lawson, 43, and Lamont Motes, 20. Most of the accused live within about 2 miles of the crash site, and authorities said all have criminal histories and are affiliated with gangs. Prosecutors are expected to detail the case against those five in bond court as soon as Sunday.
Those who gave videotaped confessions, police said, included Tucker and the Lawrence brothers.
As Fort stared into the court gallery Saturday, a relative motioned with his hand for the teen to keep his chin up.
Prosecutors then laid out the case against the pair, saying that before Moore and Stuckey could remove the keys from the ignition after the crash, the mob had closed in. The childhood friends had been moving furniture in the van Tuesday evening when Moore apparently lost control while turning onto South Lake Park Avenue.
The crash injured three women, one of whom remained in critical condition Saturday. Moore’s blood-alcohol level was slightly over the legal limit.
Stuckey was dragged from the vehicle through a broken window, punched, stomped and pounded over the head with pieces of the broken stone steps, said Assistant State’s Atty. Megan Goldish. Prosecutors said Fort, who attends South Shore Academy, was one of those who lifted a concrete slab over his head and threw it down on Stuckey.
Fort’s attorney, Lawrence Wolf Levin, said the young man nicknamed “Peanut” is “scared to death” by the predicament he finds himself in. When he met with Fort Friday night, the youth’s days in custody were taking a toll, Levin said.
“We walked in and he was curled up in a ball, with his shirt pulled over his head, and he was shaking,” the attorney said. “Somebody has apparently pointed him out, but if he was there, he was there to help.”
At the hearing, Levin objected to the judge’s strong statements against his client. “Tell me his fingerprint was on a rock; tell me [police] have a signed confession,” he said, adding that the teen has not implicated himself.
Tucker, on the other hand, has given a videotaped statement to authorities, Goldish said. Authorities allege he punched out the driver’s side window, hit Moore in the face, pulled the keys from the ignition and threw them away.
He then allegedly pulled Moore from the van and joined others in kicking and stomping him, Goldish said.
The evidence against Tucker, nicknamed “Ju-Ju,” allegedly includes a bloody fingerprint left on a concrete slab used in the killing, prosecutors said, and cuts on one of his arms.
Police have tried to interview many of the estimated 100 bystanders who may have witnessed the incident, but said they have relied on a handful of people who were nearby to help sort through differing accounts.
Some residents of the Lake Parc Place complex across the street from the crime scene said they were pleased authorities were able to bring charges.
“If they committed the crime, they should do the punishment,” said Julia Mitchell, 29, a data processing coordinator. “It could have been me in that car.”
But she was surprised to hear of charges against Lawson, who sells and delivers Christmas trees during the holidays, she said. “He seems like a decent man,” Mitchell said.
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Jacqueline Green, Lawson’s stepmother, said he was in the neighborhood Tuesday night because his car had broken down and he took it to a shop.
She insisted he wasn’t out at the stoop at the time of the beating but went out later to help those who were injured. Lawson had blood on his shirt when police arrived, Green acknowledged, but she said, “Ricky picked up one of the girls and brought her into the building.”
Henry Lawrence spoke well of his uncles, the charged Henry and Roosevelt Lawrence, and said they were always in the area spending time with family. He laughed at the idea that either was in a street gang.
“How the hell are they involved with gangs? They’re too old,” Lawrence said.
Camille Green, a niece of James Ousley, said her uncle was a block away when the incident occurred and then walked to the scene and slipped under the police tape to help one of the injured women.
Those who know Lamont Motes, who police have alleged was an instigator in the attack, said he is a former Cub Scout who grew up in Lake Parc Place.
Also Saturday, Police Supt. Terry Hillard stood by his use of the term “thugs” to describe the group of attackers.
“This is America,” Hillard said at an unrelated event. “I’m the superintendent of police, and I say they’re thugs.”