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player ready...A man on parole for the 1988 murder of a 13-year-old girl is one of three men charged in a string of burglaries in the Little Village neighborhood dating back to spring of last year, and police are asking for victims to come forward to claim the stolen goods, according to police and court records.
Michael A. Martinez, 44, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison in 1989 after pleading guilty to murder and attempted murder in the shooting that killed Nellie Cardenas and injured three other people, is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail after being charged with burglary, according to court records.
Richard A. Nunez, 51, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a 1998 robbery case, is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail after being charged with burglary and unlawful use of a weapon. And Courtney D. McFields, 30, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2002 in a carjacking case, is being held in lieu of $250,000 after being charged with burglary.
The three were arrested about 3:30 a.m. Monday by Area Central detectives and Ogden District burglary team officers after they broke into a building in the 2100 block of South California Avenue, according to a release from Chicago Police Department.
Detectives began investigating a string of burglaries in commercial buildings in Little Village in May 2013, and had tied a beige GMC van to several of the break-ins, according to police.
Detectives and the Ogden District officers began surveillance of Nunez at some point, and saw Nunez and two other people, all wearing black clothing, gloves, and masks, force their way into the California building, police said. When police saw the three come out of the building, they were arrested, and police recovered $12,000 cash and various electronics.
Investigators executed four search warrants at storage facilities and found stolen items including power tools, computers, other electronics and jewelry worth more than $10,000, police said. Investigators also confiscated a shotgun and ammunition and a loaded revolver, and impounded two vehicles.
Police are still investigating, and are asking anyone who might have been a victim in a Little Village-area burglary to visit the Ogden District station, 3315 W. Ogden Ave., between noon and 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday to see if their missing items are among those confiscated. Property found includes air compressors, flood lights, table saws, circular saws, power painters, heaters, computers, other electronics and jewely, police said.
For more information, victims can call detectives at 312-747-7013
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Martinez was sentenced to 45 years in prison in 1989 after pleading guilty to the March 13, 1988, slaying of Nellie Cardenas, near Ogden Avenue and Pulaski Road, as she returned from a wedding with relatives and friends. Martinez, who now lives in the 2000 block of West 18th Street, and another gang member who was in a car with him, flashed gang signs at the vehicle Nellie was in, and one of the girls with her returned the sign, according to testimony at the time.
Thinking that he had fooled rival gang members, opened fire with a .44-caliber revolver, hitting Nellie, her 15-year-old sister, another 13-year-old girl, and an 18-year-old man. No one in the car with Nellie was a gang member, prosecutors at the time Martinez was sentenced.
Martinez was paroled last year, according to state records.
Martinez, Nunez, of the 3300 block of West Commercial Avenue in South Chicago Heights, and McFields, of the 6900 block of South Wolcott Avenue, are all documented gang members, police said. They appeared Wednesday before Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. and are due back in court Sept. 15.