2 men sentenced for shooting that killed Chicago mom out shopping with her young sons

CHICAGO - Two gang members were each sentenced to more than 50 years in prison Tuesday for firing at rivals and instead killing a mother out shopping with her young sons.

Candice Dickerson, a mother of three and a pharmacy technician at Norwegian American Hospital, had been at a Metro PCS store on April 26, 2019, looking for a new cell phone to reward one of her sons for his achievements in school.

She was talking to a store employee and standing near two of her sons, 10 and 12, when a bullet crashed through the front window of the store at 5900 S. Kedzie Ave. and struck her in the head.

She was rushed to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she was pronounced dead.

A jury convicted Bryant Mitchell, 27, and Marco Zabala, 28, last summer on charges of first-degree murder in Dickerson’s death, as well as counts of attempted murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm.

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The sentences were handed down after Dickerson’s family and her best friend submitted statements to the court expressing their pain at her death and their grief that she did not get to see her sons grow up.

Dickerson had worked extra hours at the hospital to give her children the best life she could, and she still found time to help them with their homework, give them her attention and make their favorite meal: chicken Alfredo.

Dickerson’s mother said she would miss the daily phone calls from her daughter, which were often filled with laughter.

Her sister, Nicole Dickerson, said the two men had "robbed Candice of all of the memories that go along with motherhood." But she noted that they had robbed themselves and their own families, as well.

She asked that the judge send them to prison as a message to other gang members, but also where they couldn’t hurt another innocent person.

Video of the attack showed Mitchell, Zabala and another member of the Satan’s Disciples street gang flashing rival gang signs — "false flagging" — at a group of men in a Chrysler sedan moments before the shooting, prosecutors said.

Bryan Mitchell and Marco Zabala

Zabala then retrieved a gun and handed it to Mitchell, who fired five shots at the Chrysler on a busy street during the evening rush hour.

"This took place … on a sunny spring evening in the city of Chicago. I believe it was a weekday," Judge Timothy Joyce noted. "There were a lot of people walking, driving through that intersection."

Only one of the shots struck the Chrysler and two others struck an ambulance returning to a fire station after a run to a hospital, authorities said.

Mitchell declined to give a statement Tuesday, but Zabala told Dickerson’s family he was sorry. "I didn’t mean anything to happen, that’s all," Zabala said quietly.

Joyce said he understood neither had intended to kill the 36-year-old mother, but he believed that made their actions more damning.

"It’s not stupidity .. It’s a function of not caring about anything except channelling their gang animus toward some other gang member," the judge said.

Mitchell was sentenced to a total of 56 years in prison; Zabala to 51.

Each was given credit for 1,341 days spent in jail awaiting for their case to be resolved.