One man has been convicted and another was acquitted in the shooting death and beating of an Austin neighborhood man in 2014, according to Cook County prosecutors and court records.
Jemal Ross, 27, was found guilty of first-degree murder by one jury and James Dixon, 21, was found not guilty of first-degree murder by another jury in the Feb. 13, 2014, killing of Andre Hughes, 30. Hughes was killed behind an apartment building in the 300 block of North Central Avenue where he had been visiting friends moments earlier, according to prosecutors.
Ross and Dixon were tried before Judge Erica Reddick, and the juries reached their verdicts late Tuesday, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s office. Ross is set to be sentenced May 3.
The killing happened after Ross ran into Hughes the evening of Feb. 13, 2014, at a liquor store near the Central Avenue apartment building, and Ross, who was at the store with someone else, had a dispute with Hughes about gang affiliation, prosecutors said at the time Dixon and Ross were charged.
Later, Ross met Dixon in an apartment building in the 300 block of North Central and told Dixon that Hughes had “disrespected” their gang, prosecutors said in 2014.
About 9 p.m., Dixon and Ross were inside the apartment building, where Hughes was drinking with friends, prosecutors said. At some point, Hughes began to climb the stairs to go up to a friend’s apartment, and Dixon went up the stairway and blocked Hughes’ path, while Ross stood behind Hughes and blocked him from going down.
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Dixon asked Hughes if he had a gun, and Hughes smiled and took a sip from a beer he was holding, prosecutors said. Ross said to Dixon that Hughes had disrespected the gang they belong to, and Dixon punched Hughes in the head, causing him to hit his head on the wall and fall down the stairs. Ross kicked Hughes in the head, and Hughes became unresponsive, causing witnesses to think he already had been killed, prosecutors said.
Ross and Dixon dragged Hughes outside into an alley between Central and Parkside avenues, and shot Hughes four times, killing him, prosecutors said.
Following an autopsy, the medical examiner’s office determined Hughes died after he suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
A witness saw Dixon inside the apartment building with a gun, and after the shooting, Dixon went back into the apartment building and borrowed a mop from someone inside to clean up a trail of blood that led from the stairwell outside, prosecutors said.
Video from the area showed Ross and Dixon going into the apartment building, and when he was arrested, Ross admitted to taking part in the beating and shooting of Hughes, prosecutors said.