Head of murderous Wicked Town street gang convicted by federal jury
CHICAGO - A federal jury Tuesday convicted the head of the relentlessly violent Wicked Town street gang and held him responsible for six murders at the end of a two-month racketeering trial at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago.
In convicting Donald "Lil’ Don" Lee, jurors found that many murders committed amid Wicked Town’s reign of violence on the West Side were "committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner."
The jury also convicted Torance "Blackie" Benson, a so-called "shooter" for the gang. It held him responsible for one murder and three attempted murders.
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After reading the verdict, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin thanked the jurors and called their service "incredible." He did not set a sentencing hearing for Lee or Benson, who face mandatory life sentences.
The two men showed no obvious reaction when the verdict was read in the courtroom.
The trial of Lee and Benson stretched across more than nine weeks and repeatedly exposed jurors to evidence of brutal violence.
Law enforcement officials make significant announcement in Chicago federal gang trial
A federal jury Tuesday convicted the head of the relentlessly violent Wicked Town street gang and held him responsible for six murders at the end of a two-month racketeering trial at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
The jury also heard from a parade of fellow Wicked Town conspiracy members. They were charged last year with Lee and Benson, but they pleaded guilty and admitted frankly to their own crimes on the witness stand, including murder.
One, Deshawn Morgan, even acknowledged sending a longtime friend to his death because of the mistaken suspicion that the friend had snitched on him to authorities.
That friend, Donald Holmes Jr., was shot to death along with Diane Taylor in a Jeep Cherokee on Jan. 31, 2018, in the 4700 block of Arthington Street. Darius "Skudder" Murphy was later allegedly caught on tape bragging that he shot Holmes and Taylor in their heads. The Jeep was sitting outside Murphy’s home at the time of the killings. He has since admitted to their murders.
Jurors early last month saw images from the bloody aftermath of the shooting. Morgan testified that Lee later told him "it was a dumb idea" to have the pair killed right in front of Murphy’s house.
Defendants (left to right) Donald Lee and Torance Benson. (U.S. Attorney's Office)
Defense attorneys for Lee and Benson urged the jury not to trust such witnesses, arguing they were simply trying to shorten the lengthy prison sentences they are also likely to serve by telling lies to help prosecutors. Lee attorney Lisa Wood insisted the feds’ case amounted to a "house of cards" that would "crumble with just the slightest touch."
She also stressed the trial was not a "town hall meeting" and the verdict would "say nothing" about the scourge of street-gang violence in Chicago.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Mitchell countered that, if the defense attorneys’ argument about lying witnesses was true, the witnesses "would have told better lies."
The Wicked Town conspiracy spanned two decades, from July 2000 to August 2020. The feds argued that three rules governed the gang, which was a faction of the Traveling Vice Lords. Wicked Town members were never to lose a gun or talk to law enforcement. And, they were expected to use violence to advance their goals.
Bullet-riddled car at the scene of a murder by Wicked Town gang members. (U.S. Attorney's Office)
"You don’t ever sell one of the guns that can save one of the guys’ life," Lee told a fellow gang member in an April 2019 phone call, according to the evidence.
An indictment last year connected Wicked Town to 19 murders. Prosecutors said Lee rose within Wicked Town’s ranks by killing three people in three years. Wood pointed out that her client had no direct involvement in several of the murders at issue in the case, but Mitchell countered that it didn’t matter.
Rather, what mattered was whether Lee and Benson agreed those or other crimes should be committed amid the gang’s conduct.
Jurors found the Wicked Town conspiracy included the murders of Lamont Ware in July 2000; Ernest Moore in December 2002; John Johnson in June 2003; Charlie Weathers in May 2015; Malcolm Wille in July 2015; Kishaun Mobley in December 2017; and Martel Howard in January 2016.