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‘I’ll get you,’ brother of Goonie Boss gang leader allegedly warns witness at trial

By Sun-Times Media Wire
Published  May 31, 2023 9:06pm CDT
Chicago
Sun-Times Media Wire

Gang leader's brother charged with threatening witness

"I’ll get you," Rosco Blackman told a witness after the witness testified and walked to a side room during a break in the trial, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

CHICAGO - A Goonie Boss street gang leader’s brother is accused of threatening a witness during his brother’s trial on federal racketeering charges Tuesday.

"I’ll get you," Rosco Blackman told a witness after the witness testified and walked to a side room during a break in the trial, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

Romeo "O-Dog" Blackman is on trial along with two other members of the South Side gang tied to an indictment that connected them to 10 slayings across 30 months from 2014 to 2016.

The witness, a former Goonie Boss gang member who agreed to cooperate with the feds, testified in court Tuesday that Romeo Blackman had confessed to the January 2014 slaying of a person whom the brothers suspected of being a police informant.

During their testimony, the witness saw Rosco Blackman standing outside the courtroom and "mouth words" to them as he peered through the courtroom door, the complaint said.

Then after U.S. District Judge John Blakey excused jurors and the witness for a break, Rosco Blackman stood up about three rows deep in the gallery, leaned toward the witness and said "words to the effect of ‘I’ll get you,’" as a police detective escorted the witness to another room, according to the complaint.

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Rosco Blackman is accused of intimidating and threatening the witness "with intent to influence, delay and prevent the testimony" of the witness at his brother’s trial.

The trial of Romeo Blackman, 27; Terrance "T" Smith, 27; and Jolicious "Jo Jo" Turman, 31; began last week and is expected to continue over the next couple of weeks.

Rosco Blackman’s alleged witness tampering is the second alleged threat to a witness in the case.

Ahead of the trial, the judge cited allegations that Romeo Blackman, as he was being held in Chicago’s downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center, offered someone $25,000 to have a witness killed. The citation came during the judge’s denial of a request from the defendants to attend trial without leg shackles.

The Goonie Boss trial, like other street-gang trials, is being held amid enhanced security at Chicago’s federal courthouse.