Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Tom Schuba

FBG Duck’s ex-girlfriend says defendant sent laughing emojis after slaying

2023-12-13T18:54:39.951-06:00

A courtroom sketch depicts six alleged members and associates of the O Block faction of the Black Disciples, charged in the killing of rapper FBG Duck, during a trial at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

L.D. Chukman

Shortly after rapper FBG Duck died in a hail of bullets on the Gold Coast, his former girlfriend received an unexpected text message.

It contained only three laughing emojis.

The text came from her child’s father, Ralph Turpin, who’s among six members and associates of the O Block faction of the Black Disciples charged in a federal murder and racketeering case stemming from Duck’s slaying on Aug. 4, 2020.

Trial begins in Gold Coast slaying of rapper, ‘they had one mission — to kill Duck’

Turpin, 34, is accused of making at least one phone call that drew the other defendants to the swanky shopping district to kill Duck, real name Carlton Weekly. Although prosecutors have linked the shooting to a yearslong gang war, evidence presented at trial indicates Turpin’s motive for flagging Duck’s location was deeply personal.

Dateisha House testified Wednesday that she and Turpin have a 12-year-old daughter together, and that she dated Duck for roughly three years until April 2020.

Cellphone video taken inside a boutique on Oak Street just minutes before the shooting shows Turpin made a frantic phone call. Turpin referenced Duck and appeared to call House “bogus” for allowing their child to spend time with the rapper.

“It’s over with now, though,” he said in the call.

Another call for mistrial in FBG Duck murder trial — this one sparked by YouTuber’s removal from courtroom

After watching the shooting, Turpin sent House the message with the emojis. By then, House said, she had minimal contact with Turpin because their daughter had her own phone and could keep in touch with him.

During her grand jury testimony in June 2021, House clearly tied the message to Duck’s killing.

“I think [Turpin] was being evil and just laughing at me because he knew how much I love Duck, and he knew that I was hurt,” she said. “And we’re not friends anymore.”

But when she was asked what she thought Turpin meant when he sent the emojis, House demurred. “I didn’t think anything of it,” she said.

Star witness in FBG Duck murder trial is a masked rap blogger — and longtime government informant

Two other people who have known Turpin for much of his life are expected to testify next. One witness has told the feds that Turpin didn’t like Duck and was jealous of his relationship with House, according to a court filing.

Turpin is on trial alongside Marcus Smart, 24; Christopher Thomas, 24; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Charles Liggins, 32; and Tacarlos Offerd, 32.

In a twist, prosecutors in FBG Duck murder trial intend to bring up criminal records of their own witnesses

The mother of Offerd’s child, Tiffany Huff, also took the stand this week, though she made it abundantly clear she didn’t want to be there.

“You forced me to be here,” she told Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien on Wednesday, “And you threatened me with jail time through my attorney.”

Huff had been barred from the courtroom after it was revealed that she was regularly sitting in the gallery ahead of her testimony. Earlier this week, Judge Martha Pacold issued an order granting the government’s motion for a material witness warrant for Huff, a move that was apparently aimed at ensuring she’d show up.

Entertainment or evidence of criminal enterprise? Drill rap, King Von take center stage in FBG Duck murder trial

Huff testified that she drove to a suburban car dealership shortly after the shooting to pick up Offerd, Smart and another suspect who took his own life. Offerd had returned a Ford Fusion, one of the two getaway cars used in the shooting.

She reluctantly identified Offerd, Smart and the other man from surveillance footage at Parkway Gardens, a sprawling apartment complex that serves as O Block’s stronghold and shares the same nickname.

After she testified, Offerd’s attorney, John Somerville, asked Pacold if she’d allow Huff back in court as an observer.

Julien quickly objected, saying she may be recalled as a witness as the government winds down its case.

Another call for mistrial in FBG Duck murder trial — this one sparked by YouTuber’s removal from courtroom

2023-12-12T17:31:47.309-06:00

Rapper FBG Duck, real name Carlton Weekly, was shot and killed in the Gold Coast on Aug. 4, 2020.

Facebook

Attorneys representing six men accused of killing rapper FBG Duck called for a mistrial Tuesday, alleging that a blogger was wrongfully removed from the courtroom after her erroneous reporting on the proceedings angered a key government witness.

While mainstream media outlets have largely ignored the federal murder and racketeering trial, the extraordinary events unfolding at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse have repeatedly spilled onto YouTube channels and rap blogs.

In a motion filed on behalf of all the defense attorneys, lawyer Steve Greenberg said Aleta “Mickey Truth” Williams was pulled out of court last week after she falsely claimed that Rakeem “FBG Butta” Wilton had been paid to work with the feds.

Wilton runs a YouTube channel with nearly 50,000 subscribers and was close friends with FBG Duck, real name Carlton Weekly.

Duck was gunned down in the Gold Coast on Aug. 4, 2020, amid a lengthy gang war. On trial are six members and associates of the O Block faction of the Black Disciples: Marcus Smart, 24; Christopher Thomas, 24; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Charles Liggins, 32; Tacarlos Offerd, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34.

Williams posted the video about Wilton’s testimony on Dec. 6 and incorrectly stated that he or his mother had received $2,700 in exchange for his testimony. That same day, as Wilton was still technically on the stand while the trial was in recess, he appeared on another YouTube channel and ranted about the mistake.

Williams, who traveled from out of state to report on the trial, posted a correction on Thursday after being contacted by Wilton’s mother, according to the filing. Upset about her false claim, Wilton expressed “great displeasure” to his handlers and “at one point sought to run out of the room where he was being held.”

When he returned to the courtroom to testify, government agents told Williams that she wouldn’t be able to remain in the courtroom while he was on the stand, the filing states.

Although Williams was offered the opportunity to watch from an overflow courtroom, she decided to leave Chicago when the agents told her the defendants were “dangerous people” and said she was now at risk.

Prosecutors alleged that Williams had posted pictures and inaccurate personal information about Wilton’s mother, a claim that was rejected in the mistrial motion. It alleges that Williams’ exclusion from the courtroom violated her right to free speech and the defendants’ right to a public trial.

“The law does not distinguish between traditional and new media,” Greenberg, one of Roberson’s attorneys, wrote in the filing. “If reporters from the Tribune, Sun-Times or the local news had been barred in the same manner as Ms. Williams, this Court would recognize it as an outrageous violation of the defendants’ right to a public trial. This scenario is no less outrageous.”

During a conference Tuesday without the jury present, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien said his team would file “a very short response” later this week.

Judge Martha Pacold rejected another push for a mistrial last month, when defense attorneys raised concerns over an FBI agent’s testimony about alleged witness retaliation.

Williams isn’t the only person authorities have booted from the courtroom. The filing shows that another YouTuber was removed from the courtroom on Thursday after he posted a video suggesting that the defendants “needed to activate someone to crash out and kill the witness,” apparently referring to Wilton.

On Tuesday, a witness who had previously been removed from the courtroom took the stand after a warrant was issued for her a day earlier. Tiffany Huff, Offerd’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, discussed his ties to O Block and recalled taking him to purchase a Ford Fusion that was later used in the shooting.

Duck’s mother, LaSheena Weekly, was also removed from the courtroom for a second time after causing a disturbance Monday. Stephen Linder, a supervisor with the U.S. Marshals Service, explained on Tuesday that she was previously cited for having a quarter-ounce of weed at the courthouse and was also involved in a “verbal altercation” that nearly led to a fight.

Keith Spielfogel, one of Offerd’s attorneys, said it was “rather generous” that she was being allowed to watch from the overflow room “given these prior incidents.”

Linder also noted that Liggins’ sister had been kicked out of court when she was found with a small switchblade, though he acknowledged she used it for work and said she had been given a path to come back.

“We just want the same type of respect on both sides,” the typically stone-faced Liggins said, referring to LaSheena Weekly’s treatment.

Feds in FBG Duck murder trial to bring up their witnesses’ criminal records

2023-12-11T20:29:39.068-06:00

Six members and associates of the O Block faction of the Black Disciples street gang are charged in the killing of rapper FBG Duck, whose real name was Carlton Weekly.

L.D. Chukman

In their push to convict six men in the brazen killing of rapper FBG Duck on the Gold Coast, federal prosecutors are relying on a cast of unsavory characters to make their case.

Two gang members-turned-YouTubers have sparred with defense attorneys and evaded questions while providing potentially crucial testimony against the O Block faction of the Black Disciples in the murder and racketeering trial. A former member of the gang set has also taken the stand.

Prosecutors are now expected to press three of their own witnesses about their criminal backgrounds this week — a move defense attorneys opposed, saying it was inappropriate.

“You can’t put up a witness simply to impeach them,” attorney Cheryl Bormann argued during a conference without the jury present Monday.

Meanwhile, a warrant was issued for another witness who was previously booted from the courtroom after it was revealed she was present for the proceedings. The warrant remained under seal Monday, but electronic updates to the courts’ online system showed that a bench warrant had been issued for the woman, who is the mother of one defendant’s child.

The trial has grown into a spectacle that’s spilled out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse and onto YouTube accounts and rap blogs that draw millions of viewers from across the globe. It centers on a lengthy gang war between O Block and the Tookaville faction of the Gangster Disciples that was claimed by FBG Duck, real name Carlton Weekly.

Rapper FBG Duck, real name Carlton Weekly, was shot and killed in the Gold Coast on Aug. 4, 2020.

Facebook

On trial are six O Block members and associates: Marcus Smart, 24; Christopher Thomas, 24; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Charles Liggins, 32; Tacarlos Offerd, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34.

The testimony of Martell “Trenches News” Wiley and Rakeem “FBG Butta” Wilton provided a revealing look into that world since the bloggers have deep knowledge of the gang feud. But they proved mercurial on the stand, alternating between angry outbursts and comical asides that bordered on mocking the court.

Wilton testified that he had a child with Duck’s sister and was close friends with the slain rapper. But Wilton’s most compelling testimony related to the killing of his own sister, Gakirah Barnes, a female gang assassin who was shot and killed in a 2014 attack that also wounded Wilton.

Rakeem “FBG Butta” Wilton testified last week in the federal trial surrounding the fatal shooting of his friend, rapper FBG Duck.

YouTube

Wilton conceded in open court that King Von, a superstar rapper and alleged O Block leader, had killed his sister by standing over her and shooting her repeatedly. Von, real name Dayvon Bennett, later placed a bounty on Duck’s head before he was killed, prosecutors say.

Wilton’s testimony came after he made public statements claiming Von hadn’t killed his sister — something he said he did to avoid breaking the no-snitch code of the street. He changed his story after Von was killed in an apparently unrelated shooting months after Duck was gunned down.

“As long as Von was walking this earth,” Wilton said, “I never mentioned the man’s name on no police s---.”

A mural of rapper King Von wearing an O Block necklace is seen outside Parkway Super Market at 6435 S. King Drive on Nov. 22, 2023.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Prosecutors are now getting ready to call a new batch of witnesses with troubled backgrounds they want to highlight. All three witnesses are longtime associates of Turpin, who allegedly alerted the other defendants that Duck was shopping on the Gold Coast on Aug, 4, 2020.

On Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien said the witnesses have willingly brought up their criminal histories while discussing the case but wouldn’t prep for their testimony. “That’s just not the reality with these folks that we’re talking about,” Julien said, describing them as bordering on being “hostile.”

The dozen defense attorneys objected, saying they weren’t going to focus on the records and called on Judge Martha Pacold to block the move. “Everybody here knows that it’s improper to do,” said Steve Greenberg, who along with Bormann represents Roberson.

Attorney Steve Greenberg talks to reporters at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in July 2019.

Associated Press

Julien complained that Greenberg had previously made unfounded claims that prosecutors had acted improperly, calling Greenberg’s behavior “wildly unprofessional.” After telling both sides to “take it easy,” Pacold found that federal rules allowed prosecutors to move forward with its plan.

Before Monday’s proceedings closed on that testy exchange, Pacold made an order granting the government’s motion for a material witness warrant for Tiffany Huff, Offerd’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child.

The warrant was issued to the U.S. Marshals Service but remained under seal, according to an email sent through the court’s online system.

Huff was previously kicked out of the courtroom when officials realized she was watching from the gallery.

John Poulos, Chicago cop whose fatal shootings of 2 men led to City Hall payouts, now running for Cook County judge

2023-12-08T13:15:00-06:00

John Poulos.

Sgt. John Poulos — whose career as a Chicago cop has been marked by two controversial fatal shootings and a push by the police superintendent to fire him in a misconduct case — is now running for judge in Cook County with the help of a Democratic Party insider and $500,000 in loans from his wife.

In 2013 and again in 2016, Poulos shot and killed a Black man, shootings that resulted in a total of about $2 million in legal settlement payments from City Hall to their families.

Though one of the men was unarmed, and experts said the other hadn’t drawn his gun, Poulos was cleared of wrongdoing by city investigations.

On Sept. 27, Poulos, who is a lawyer, filed paperwork launching his campaign committee. He since has filed petitions to run in Cook County’s new 20th judicial subcircuit, which covers a large swath of the North Side.

Poulos — who didn’t respond to an interview request — is assigned to the police department’s records inquiry section, with a salary of nearly $130,000 a year. He’s among four candidates vying for the judge’s seat in the March 19 Democratic primary.

Family members of the two men Poulos killed said they were troubled to learn he’s running for judge.

“I’m coming unraveled because I have to scratch the surface of that scab that had healed to a certain degree,” said Kenyatta Hill, the sister of Rickey Rozelle, whom Poulos shot to death during an off-duty incident more than a decade ago. “It’s like a slap in the face. I have to go out and look at this guy campaign and have a normal life — and my brother is dead.”

On Aug. 31, 2013, Poulos was walking home from Gamekeepers, his family’s now-shuttered bar in Old Town, when he came upon Rozelle.

Poulos told investigators he thought Rozelle was burglarizing a neighbor’s vacant apartment building in the 1900 block of North Lincoln Avenue, according to a report by the city’s Independent Police Review Authority. After Poulos said he announced himself as a cop and called 911, he said Rozelle threatened his life and lunged at him.

Poulos struck Rozelle, 28, and shot him, telling investigators he appeared to pull out “a shiny metallic object,” according to IPRA. The agency said police recovered “a large, chrome-colored watch” but no weapon.

Aldermen sign off on $4.5M in settlements tied to police wrongdoing

Poulos, who shot Rozelle with a revolver belonging to his brother, told authorities he hadn’t been drinking.

IPRA found Poulos’ use of force to have been in line with department policy.

In July 2014, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund named Poulos “officer of the month” for his actions that night.

Still, in July 2018, the Chicago City Council approved a $950,000 settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his sister.

Sister wants feds to review fatal shooting by off-duty cop

Now, Hill said she questions whether Poulos could “rule without bias” if elected.

“He’s a murderer in my eyes, and I don’t think he’s fit to sit and rule on any case,” she said.

As Hill’s lawsuit was still making its way through the courts, then-First Deputy Supt. Kevin Navarro recommended that Poulos be promoted to sergeant.

Months later, on Nov. 23, 2016, Poulos fatally shot 19-year-old Kajuan Raye during a foot pursuit in West Englewood. Poulos was responding to a report of a battery when he saw Raye and tried to stop him, according to the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, IPRA’s successor agency. Poulos said Raye matched the description that had been given of the attacker and that he ran to the 6500 block of South Marshfield Avenue, with the cop giving chase.

Poulos told COPA he fired twice when Raye turned and aimed a pistol at him, though the police initially couldn’t find a weapon.

Raye died of a single gunshot wound to the back.

Attorney for family of Kajuan Raye rejects COPA finding that his fatal 2016 shooting was justified

Three months later, a 911 caller reported that her son had found a handgun in front of her home on Marshfield.

COPA’s final report concluded it was “likely and reasonable” that Raye had been carrying that gun and “posed an immediate threat” to Poulos’ life.

When COPA cleared Poulos, Raye’s mother Karonisha Ramsey denied in August 2019 that her son had a gun.

Kajuan Raye, who was fatally shot by Chicago police Sgt. John Poulos in November 2016.

Provided

By then, she had filed a federal lawsuit against Poulos and the city.

Ramsey later acknowledged that her son was armed but said ballistics experts had found the gun was still in his jacket when the fatal shot was fired. In a court filing in January 2020, she said experts retained by her and by the city agreed the bullet “entered the victim from his back, traveled through his body and encountered the … firearm that was located in the breast pocket of the Pelle Pelle jacket.”

Kajuan Raye was armed but wasn’t pointing gun when he was killed by Chicago cop: experts

That March, a jury found that the shooting was unjustified and awarded Ramsey more than $1 million, including $11,586 to cover the teenager’s funeral costs.

Karonisha Ramsey, surrounded by family, stands outside Chicago Police Department headquarters on Aug. 2, 2019, to address the finding that the 2016 shooting of her son Kajuan Raye was justified.

Megan Nagorzanski / Sun-Times

She said the news that Poulos is running for judge brought back painful memories.

“He killed my son,” Ramsey said. “My son didn’t bother him. I can’t see how he can be running for anything. Before that, he killed another young boy.”

Michael Oppenheimer, Ramsey’s lawyer, said: “I find it offensive he’s actually running for judge. The people of Cook County do not need to be served by this man. He has already betrayed their trust in him by wrongfully killing another human being.”

While the shooting was under investigation, then-police Supt. Eddie Johnson sought to fire Poulos in connection to a disciplinary case that had fallen through the cracks a decade earlier. Poulos had failed to disclose he’d been arrested while applying to become a cop and that he’d held an ownership stake in his family’s bar after being hired, Johnson said in filing disciplinary charges with the Chicago Police Board in June 2017.

The initial investigation was completed in February 2007, but the underlying disciplinary recommendations weren’t acted on.

Cop who shot, killed Kajuan Raye was under investigation in 2004

Johnson pointed out that Poulos had been injured on the job in March 2002 and didn’t return to work until June 2010 and said the department didn’t serve cops with disciplinary charges while they were on leave.

Johnson couldn’t explain why the charges weren’t served when Poulos returned or why he was promoted to sergeant without the disciplinary matter being resolved.

After Poulos filed a motion to dismiss the disciplinary case, the board ruled in February 2018 that Johnson’s “lengthy and unexplained delay” in filing the charges violated a departmental policy affording cops the right to “thorough” and “prompt” disciplinary proceedings. The board, which was headed by soon-to-be-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, voted unanimously to throw out the case.

Poulos’ wife Marjorie is listed as his campaign treasurer and has lent his campaign committee $500,000, the only contributions that have been reported.

Poulos’ campaign committee is chaired by Tim Egan, the chief executive officer of Roseland Community Hospital, who ran two unsuccessful campaigns for the Chicago City Council from the 43rd Ward and now is the 2nd Ward Democratic committeeperson.

Egan didn’t respond to questions.

Poulos is running against attorneys Nickolas Pappas, Michael Zink and Nadine Wichern, chief of the civil appeals division for the Illinois attorney general’s office.

Off-duty Chicago cop strikes, kills pedestrian near House of Blues in River North

2023-12-08T06:25:35.439-06:00

An off-duty Chicago police officer was driving early Thursday near the House of Blues on State Street when she struck and killed a pedestrian, according to a police report and sources. Another pedestrian was injured. The driver was cited.

ABC7 Chicago

An off-duty Chicago cop struck and killed a woman early Thursday after becoming distracted because of her phone and veering onto a sidewalk near the House of Blues in River North, according to a police report and sources.

The 40-year-old officer was driving an Infiniti SUV in the 300 block of North State Street about 12:30 a.m. Thursday. She told officers that she had dropped her phone and had taken her eyes off the road to grab it, the report said.

When she looked up, the driver said, she feared she was going to hit a median and lost control as she turned the other way, according to the report. She crashed into two Texas women, a 37-year-old and 56-year-old Maria Schwab.

They were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where Schwab was pronounced dead. An examination determined Schwab died of multiple injuries from the wreck and her death was ruled an accident, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The younger woman was treated for bruises on her knees and a cut on her hand.

Schwab was on a work outing with Amplify, an educational technology and publishing company, a company spokesperson said.

“This day has been very challenging for everybody,” Amplify spokesperson Kristine Frech told the Sun-Times. “We are deeply saddened and grieving for this sudden loss.”

“All our colleagues are going to do anything in our power to support the family and our colleagues as we process this tragedy,” said Frech, who wasn’t on the outing.

Law enforcement sources identified the driver as a police officer. The report shows responding officers didn’t offer her a blood-alcohol test at the scene.

The driver was cited for negligent driving, driving while using a cellphone, failing to reduce her speed and failing to stay in her lane.

She was relieved of her police powers Thursday, according to a Chicago police spokesperson, who said an investigation is ongoing. The driver didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.

Contributing: Frank Main

‘Bank jackings’ in Chicago see robbers drain victims’ accounts with their banking apps, cellphones; also tips on how to protect yourself

2023-12-08T05:30:00-06:00

Bank apps like this one have been used by robbers to loot victims’ accounts. These crimes involving cell phones are a relatively new and growing phenomenon in the city’s growing scourge of robberies.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Sun-Times

You know about carjackings. Now, you also need to be wary of “bank jackings.”

Millions of Americans whip out their phones to pay for everything from dinners to vacation rentals using banking apps like Zelle, Venmo and Cash App. But that convenience is fueling a new kind of robbery.

In Chicago and other cities, gunmen have been forcing people to unlock their phones with their pass codes or technology that recognizes thumbprints and faces, according to police.

Once in, the robbers drain victims’ bank accounts. The payoff is often $1,000 or more — a lot more than criminals typically score by just stealing a wallet.

In Chicago, the robbers often wear the kinds of masks that have been common since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, even when the police can trace where a money transfer ended up from someone’s phone, the victim often can’t identify the assailant.

Chicago is seeing largest spike in robberies in over 20 years, analysis shows

Holdups overall are up more than 25% in Chicago this year through Nov. 26 over last year. According to detectives, these “bank jackings” involving cellphones are a relatively new and growing phenomenon in the growing scourge of robberies, which last year included more than 1,600 carjackings. The number of bank jackings isn’t clear because the Chicago Police Department doesn’t list them as a separate category of robberies.

Zachary Skinner is among the victims. Around 1 a.m. on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Skinner, 21, a college student from Valparaiso, Indiana, was bar-hopping with friends in Wrigleyville when a man in a ski mask walked up to him.

According to Skinner, the man asked for a donation “to help less fortunate kids afford sports gear.”

Skinner says he tried to get the guy to go away by reaching into his pocket and handing him $7.

The intersection of West Eddy Street and North Clark Street. Zachary Skinner was robbed nearby on Nov. 25.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Sun-Times

Skinner had a “sinking feeling” it wouldn’t be enough. It wasn’t.

Another masked man approached, pulled up his shirt to show the gun in his waistband and demanded Skinner’s phone and pass code.

‘Painful lesson’ on payment apps: It was a lot easier to be scammed than Chicago business owner realized

The man used the Zelle app on the phone to send $1,000 to a bank account with a woman’s first name.

Skinner was lucky. He was able to reach his parents and get them to freeze his bank account before the person on the other end of the illegal transfer could accept the money.

Skinner’s friends, talking nearby with other people, were unaware of what was happening.

If the robbers had managed to drain his bank account, Skinner says he would have had to work a lot of extra hours to make up for that — which would have been a major hardship because, being a two-sport college athlete, he doesn’t have a lot of free time.

Skinner says his attackers were masked, so he couldn’t identify them.

Gig workers increasingly are being targeted by scammers online and even from the backseat

He says he should have stayed closer to his friends that night.

“It really puts things in perspective,” he says. “I mean, your life can be taken away in, like, two seconds.”

He knows that uninstalling the bank app from his phone would keep this from happening again.

“But would it be practical?” says Skinner, who uses the app all the time. “Probably not.”

A bank jacking in Streeterville

Anthony Morris is among those who have been charged in the last year with carrying out bank app robberies in Chicago. Morris, 28, a felon with convictions for burglary and theft, is accused of robbing a 40-year-old man about 4 a.m. on Dec. 29, 2022, in Streeterville. According to his arrest report, he pointed a gun at the man in a parking garage in the 600 block of North McClurg Place and told him, “Give me your phone and money, or I will kill you.”

The man gave him his wallet but said his phone was in his 41st-floor apartment nearby.

Morris then led the man to the apartment, pointing a gun at his back, police said. The man gave up his iPhone 14, and Morris took him back to the parking lot, according to the police, who say Morris stole $1,350 using the PayPal app on the man’s phone, $6,850 more with Cash App and $350 with Apple Cash.

The police report says Morris reminded the man that he now knew where he lived and said that, if he “tried to do anything stupid, he would shoot him in the head.”

Morris also tried to steal the man’s BMW but didn’t know how to drive a stick shift, according to the police.

Morris was identified through a surveillance video, and the victim was able to pick him out of a photo array, police said. Morris is awaiting trial on armed robbery and kidnapping charges.

Zelle is a digital payments network run by a firm owned by banks that include JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank. Offered by more than 2,100 banks and credit unions, it covers more than 80% of personal and small-business accounts in the United States.

Users enrolled in the Zelle app can send and request money by adding another person’s phone number or email address, a cash amount and a memo showing what the money is for.

Payments typically are then available in minutes, but financial institutions set different limits for how much cash can be transferred each day and month. In 2022, Zelle users sent 2.3 billion payments totaling more than $629 billion.

Other digital payment apps like Venmo and Cash App are operated by tech firms but similarly allow users to transfer money online quickly. Venmo is owned by PayPal. Cash App is owned by Block Inc., a San-Francisco company co-founded by former Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey.

Jack Dorsey, former chief executive officer of Twitter, co-founded Block Inc., owner of Cash App.

Getty Images

Venmo says it hasn’t seen a significant rise in bank jacking reports, which the payment platform calls a phone-security issue. The company recommends security measures that app users can enable to protect their accounts, like facial recognition, multifactor authentication and a PIN code. If an account is breached, Venmo says, customers should contact its customer service, change their account information, contact their financial institutions and call the police.

Cash App points to its “security lock” feature, which similarly offers layers of security to open the app and transfer cash. When users’ PIN or security settings change, they’re alerted by the company.

Zelle didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Bank jacking: How to protect yourself

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF

What can people do to get their money back if their bank app is hijacked?

According to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “The consumer is not liable for the unauthorized transfer, and the financial institution must refund the consumer.”

Victims of fraud or robberies must contact the bank or “digital wallet provider” to start the “error-resolution process,” according to the federal agency.

Under federal regulations, a police report isn’t required.

But Ed Mierzwinski, senior director of the federal consumer program for the Public Interest Research Group, says federal regulators need to “come down harder” on companies that operate bank apps. He says the businesses blame consumers for crimes associated with the apps and “wash their hands” of their responsibility under the law.

“My advice until then: Don’t use the apps!” Mierzwinski says.

A rise of bank jackings nationally

New York Mayor Eric Adams announces charges against five people accused of drugging bar patrons to rob them. John Umberger, a political consultant whose bank account was drained using apps on his phone, was one of two victims who died.

Getty Images

Violent bank jacking incidents have been reported across the country in the last two years.

In New York, a political consultant from Washington disappeared on May 28, 2022, after visiting a nightclub. His body was found days later. Police discovered more than $25,000 was transferred from his bank accounts through apps on his phone, according to news reports.

In New York, charges in killings of gay men who were drugged and robbed

Other killings have also been linked to bank app robberies in New York.

In Chicago, an architect was walking to a downtown Metra station to catch a train about 5 a.m. on July 28 when he says three armed men jumped out of a car in the first block of South Jefferson Street, grabbed his cellphone and tried unlocking it by holding the device to his face.

When the facial recognition technology didn’t work, he says the robbers demanded his pass codes and then stole $2,000 through the Zelle banking app that was linked to his Chase account. They also took his wallet, and using the ATM password he gave them at gunpoint, drained another $1,000 in cash from his bank account.

“It was probably as traumatic for my wife and children as it was for me,” he says, “because who knows what could’ve happened to me.”

The architect says his bank almost immediately reimbursed the money taken from the ATM and recently forgave the thousands of dollars the robbers charged to his credit cards.

But the man, who asked that his name not be used, says he’s still fighting to be reimbursed for the money looted from his bank with his Zelle app: “I started bugging them and asking, ‘Why haven’t you responded to the claim for over four months?’ ”

He says Chicago police officers, responding within minutes after the holdup, chased the getaway car with the help of a police helicopter, but the high-speed pursuit was called off because of police department safety rules. The robbery remains unsolved.

“They have lots of commercials about how you can go pay for your friend’s meal, it makes it really easy, but they don’t say it’s like carrying a couple thousand dollars worth of cash in your pocket all the time,” says the architect, who offers this advice: “Don’t have any banking apps on your phone.”

A Chicago police detective who’s handled three banking app robberies offers a less drastic safety solution. People could consider uninstalling their apps, reinstalling them only when they need to make a payment and then disabling them again.

“It really doesn’t take that much time,” says the detective, asking not to be named because he wasn’t authorized by the department to speak. “It keeps the bad guys out of your bank account. This is a new thing — and it’s only going to get worse.”

Contributing: Sophie Sherry, Rosemary Sobol

FBG Duck murder trial witness says FBI work began after arrest by Ronald Watts

2023-12-04T20:26:22.645-06:00

In this courtroom sketch, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien questions rap blogger Martell Wiley as Judge Martha Pacold watches.

L.D. Chukman

A blogger turned star witness in the federal trial surrounding the killing of rapper FBG Duck claimed Monday that he initially became an FBI informant when he was arrested by corrupt Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts more than a decade ago.

The bombshell statement came during Martell Wiley’s second day of dizzying testimony at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, where he sparred with defense attorneys who noted there was no evidence he had actually cooperated against Watts.

Wiley, who runs the popular Trenches News YouTube channel, claimed he started working with the FBI in 2006 when he was arrested by Watts, who was sentenced to 22 months in federal prison for stealing what he believed was drug money from a federal informant.

Former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts leaves the Dirksen Federal Building in 2013 after receiving a 22-month prison sentence.

Sun-Times file

Watts’ alleged corruption has led Cook County prosecutors to throw out more than 200 convictions linked to the unit he led, which has been accused of extorting money from drug dealers at the former Ida B. Wells Homes and falsely arresting those who wouldn’t cooperate.

“He asked me, did I want to go to jail, or did I want my money?” Wiley claimed. “I said, I’ll go to jail. He took me to jail. I got up with the feds as soon as I got out.”

During a conference without jurors present, defense attorneys said there was no documentation of Wiley’s purported cooperation dating that far back. Cook County court records show he wasn’t charged with a crime in 2006, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien acknowledged that prosecutors had no corresponding FBI records from that year.

Star witness in FBG Duck murder trial is a masked rap blogger — and longtime government informant

Julien, who has remained calm during the trial’s most tense moments, became animated when defense attorneys pressed for more information, insisting it wasn’t surprising that a “crooked cop” didn’t properly record an arrest.

Julien ultimately noted that Wiley had mentioned something similar to FBI agents, and Judge Martha Pacold found it wasn’t “realistic or feasible” to delay his testimony.

Wiley said he reached out and offered to help law enforcement hours after FBG Duck was killed on Aug. 4, 2020. Wiley described Duck, real name Carlton Weekly, as a friend.

On trial are six alleged members and associates of the O Block set of the Black Disciples: Marcus Smart, 24; Christopher Thomas, 24; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Charles Liggins, 32; Tacarlos Offerd, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34.

Wiley repeatedly said he couldn’t remember the nearly $25,000 the FBI paid him for his cooperation, questioning his handler’s account and claiming only that he got money to relocate and get around.

Rap blogger boasts, cracks jokes while testifying against defendants in FBG Duck murder case: ‘I’m Michael Jordan on YouTube’

He also couldn’t recall working with the FBI in 2008 and 2011, despite attorneys referencing documentation showing he had cooperated then. He claimed a gunshot wound to the head in 2004 continues to affect his memory.

In a series of contentious exchanges with defense attorneys, the convicted felon acknowledged that he earned money from his YouTube channel, a book he’s written and from booking interviews with other rap-centric media outlets.

During one line of questioning about his honesty, he said he sometimes manufactures “clickbait” and that he filmed a “skit” in a fake courtroom, claiming he was testifying in the trial at Dirksen.

Wiley also appeared to admit that he carried a gun after the jury was shown pictures of what appeared to be him holding a weapon — just days after he said he built his online brand on teaching kids not to tote firearms.

Martell Wiley, who runs the Trenches News YouTube channel, wears a black mask covering his lower face and sits in what he says is a federal courtroom, in this screenshot from a video.

YouTube

“That don’t mean I’m going out there spraying people. That don’t mean that I’m going out there playing God,” he said. “Just because I’m a felon, I keep a weapon on me … Do you see the s—- that’s happening?”

Throughout Monday’s testimony, Wiley’s credibility took hit after hit as the defense sought to undercut his earlier claims that O Block is an organized criminal enterprise and his positive identifications of some of the defendants.

“You’re trying to bash me,” he said. “But in the end, it’s not going to help you.”

Rap blogger boasts, jokes while testifying in FBG Duck murder trial

2023-11-30T20:01:55.674-06:00

Martell Wiley, who runs the Trenches News YouTube channel, wears a black mask covering his lower face and sits in what he says is a federal courtroom, in this screenshot from a video. On. Thursday, he testified without the mask.

YouTube

Over the course of nearly 2,000 YouTube videos, Martell Wiley has always covered his face to discuss the often violent intersection of Chicago’s gang and rap cultures.

But Wiley ditched his signature mask Thursday and took the stand in the federal trial surrounding the brazen killing of rapper FBG Duck. In doing so, he revealed himself as a longtime government informant who’s been paid handsomely for his cooperation.

Speaking in quick bursts, Wiley cursed, cracked jokes and discussed his close connections to both the victim and defendants, some of whom he identified in surveillance footage.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien (center) questions rap blogger Martell Wiley as Judge Martha Pacold watches during the federal trial surrounding the death of rapper FBG Duck.

L.D. Chukman

His tone and tenor closely resembled the videos he’s posted to his popular Trenches News YouTube channel, which he has repeatedly used to discuss the case.

“I’m Michael Jordan on YouTube,” Wiley boasted about the channel, which has about 114,000 subscribers.

During his testimony, he acknowledged that he reached out to law enforcement and offered to help shortly after FBG Duck — whose real name is Carlton Weekly — was gunned down in the Gold Coast neighborhood on Aug. 4, 2020. He noted that he was close friends with Duck’s slain brother and described Duck as “one of the coolest, smoothest dudes.

“And that’s why I’m here today — for him,” said Wiley, who greeted Duck’s mother as he left the courtroom.

FBG Duck murder trial expected to spotlight Chicago’s gang, rap ties

Wiley’s perspective on Duck’s death is unique, as he’s been affiliated with both gang factions at the heart of the case.

On trial are six members and associates of the O Block set of the Black Disciples: Marcus Smart, 24; Christopher Thomas, 24; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Charles Liggins, 32; Tacarlos Offerd, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34.

Anchored to the Parkway Gardens housing complex at 64th Street and King Drive, O Block has been locked in a bitter, yearslong war with Duck’s Tookaville faction of the Gangster Disciples.

Six members and associates of the O Block faction of the Black Disciples, charged in the killing of rapper FBG Duck, are shown during the trial at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Thursday.

L.D. Chukman

Wiley told jurors he joined another Black Disciples faction when he was 15 and later moved to Parkway Gardens, which is also known as O Block. He said he eventually shifted to “the other side” in 2010, when he had a falling out with members of O Block and was shot.

As he reflected on his time on the street, Wiley insisted he’s no longer active and now uses his online platform to “bash” gang members and encourage kids to avoid the same path of violence and incarceration he had taken. At one point, he told jurors he’s “trying to help the city be a better place.”

‘They had one mission — to kill Duck.’ Trial begins in Gold Coast slaying of rapper

“Ain’t no money in the streets now. They’re broke, starving gang-bangers,” he said. “They need to get on YouTube.”

Despite those comments, Wiley spoke fondly about the first shooting he carried out, calling it “a rush” while noting that a gang rival had been struck 17 times. At the same time, the convicted felon downplayed his long criminal record and an outstanding warrant stemming from a pending case in Minnesota.

Rap blogger and government informant Martell Wiley is pictured in a mug shot.

Chicago Police Department

Earlier this week, FBI Special Agent Kevin Doyle told jurors that Wiley was paid nearly $25,000 over roughly 15 installments for his cooperation.

“He would provide background information. He reviewed surveillance footage [and] reviewed social media postings,” Doyle said, adding that Wiley was dropped as an informant for a time when he grew unresponsive.

Meanwhile, defense attorneys pressed the government for information about Wiley’s prior cooperation with the bureau, which goes back more than a decade. On Thursday, the lawyers successfully argued for more time to review FBI documents that were recently disclosed, including notes of interviews.

$100K bounty was placed on killing Chicago rapper FBG Duck, informant told Chicago police

They are expected to begin cross-examining Wiley on Monday, when the trial resumes. At the end of Thursday’s questioning, Judge Martha Pacold told him that he technically remained on the stand until then and shouldn’t discuss the case in the meantime.

“I won’t go on YouTube,” he said with a smirk. “I promise.”

“Certainly not,” Pacold responded.

O Block member admits lying to avoid testifying in FBG Duck murder trial

2023-11-29T19:37:02.218-06:00

Police officers surrounded by red crime scene tape work at the site of the fatal shooting of Carlton Weekly known as rapper FBG Duck.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere /Sun-Times

With a federal trial looming, an FBI agent got a troubling text message from a gang member who had agreed to cooperate against six associates charged in the killing of rapper FBG Duck.

“My brother got killed,” David Sloan wrote to his handler on Oct. 5, “im in the hospital wit my family.”

Sloan said he believed O Block, his faction of the Black Disciples that’s now at the center of a federal case, was responsible for the slaying — an alarming claim that left the FBI scrambling for answers.

“Turns out everything you told them that day about your brother being killed … was a lie,” Keith Spielfogel, an attorney representing one of the alleged members and associates of O Block, said in questioning Sloan on Wednesday.

The revelation came during Sloan’s third day on the stand, where he sat with his back to the defendants, his long dreads shielding his face. He identified some of them from surveillance footage and offered inside information about O Block and its yearslong war with FBG Duck’s Tookaville faction of the Gangster Disciples.

Duck, real name Carlton Weekly, was killed in a brazen daytime shooting in the Gold Coast on Aug. 4, 2020. On trial are Marcus Smart, 24; Christopher Thomas, 24; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Charles Liggins, 32; Tacarlos Offerd, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34.

Diamond O Block necklaces purchased by the late rapper King Von are among the mountain of evidence being used by federal prosecutors to target his alleged gang associates in a murder and racketeering case.

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Defense attorneys repeatedly questioned Sloan’s testimony and knowledge of O Block’s inner workings while detailing his lengthy criminal record, highlighting a felony gun case pending in Cook County court that he picked up when he was on parole and already cooperating with the FBI.

But Sloan’s acknowledgment that he had lied to federal authorities about his brother being killed served as the most glaring impeachment of his credibility.

When FBI agents came to Sloan’s home Oct. 13 after he stopped responding to them, he claimed his brother had been gunned down during a confrontation at a house party. In reality, Sloan’s brother had been killed in 2019 under different circumstances — and O Block had nothing to do with it, he said.

Sloan only acknowledged that he lied when he was confronted Tuesday. He later told jurors that he did so because he feared he and his family could be killed because he violated the no-snitch code of the street.

Gregory Mitchell, one of Liggins’ attorneys, insisted that Sloan was well aware of what he had signed up for.

“You understand that you were putting your life on the line by talking to them,” Mitchell said, referring to the FBI.

Sloan explained that he was initially approached by the bureau while he was being held at Cook County Jail in May 2018. Agents asked about O Block’s leadership, and he provided a list of names, he said. The feds came calling again in October 2020 — two months after Duck was killed — and Sloan formally agreed to cooperate with the investigation while he was in prison in February 2021.

FBI Special Agent Kevin Doyle testified this week that the cooperation agreement was severed that June after Sloan grew unresponsive when he was released, noting that a parole violation stemming from the outstanding gun charge played into the decision to sever the agreement for that period.

The cooperation deal was reinstated in January 2022 and has netted the convicted felon $21,515, Doyle said. Sloan said he earned $5,000 in a single cash payment for identifying defendants in surveillance footage from the Parkway Gardens apartment complex, which is also known as O Block and serves as the gang faction’s power base.

Sloan faces up to 30 years in prison in the pending case in Cook County but isn’t being offered leniency, unlike another gang-tied informant.

Sloan said he lived at Parkway Gardens in Woodlawn between 2008 and 2018, though he acknowledged that he was either locked up or living with his grandmother in North Dakota for some of that time. He painted O Block as a hierarchical clique that routinely held meetings with “killers” and drug dealers to pass out guns and dope and discuss potential retaliatory shootings.

But during cross-examination, he was presented with a transcript of a previous interview with the FBI in which he said there were no orders given or structure within O Block. At one point in his testimony, he acknowledged that he had essentially provided authorities with bogus information.

By the end of Wednesday’s testimony, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien sought to set the record straight in a final line of questioning.

“Is there a leadership structure in O Block?” Julien asked.

“Yes,” Sloan responded in his raspy drawl.

FBG Duck murder trial star witness is rap blogger, longtime informant Marvin ‘Trenches News’ Wiley

2023-11-27T20:01:11.495-06:00

YouTuber Martell Wiley, who runs the popular Trenches News channel, is expected to take the stand in the federal murder and racketeering trial in the death of rapper FBG Duck.

YouTube

A blogger focused on the lurid underbelly of Chicago’s drill rap culture has been paid nearly $25,000 to cooperate with federal authorities investigating the killing of rapper FBG Duck, an FBI agent told jurors Monday.

Martell Wiley, whose Trenches News YouTube channel has 114,000 subscribers, is expected to testify this week at the trial of six men charged in the brazen attack in the Gold Coast on Aug. 4, 2020.

There has been widespread speculation in the rap blogosphere that Wiley had violated the no-snitch street code and was identified in court records as “Cooperator 1,” who prosecutors said provided information about the O Block faction of the Black Disciples that’s at the center of the murder and racketeering case.

During an interview days before the trial began last month, Wiley dispelled what he described as rumors while sidestepping a question about whether he had been paid to cooperate with law enforcement.

Within days, he changed his tune in a bizarre video posted to his YouTube channel. Wearing his signature face mask in an empty courtroom that he said was inside the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Wiley admitted he was testifying in what he described as “the trial of the century.”

A mural of rapper King Von wearing an O Block necklace is shown at Parkway Super Market, 6435 S. King Drive. The 26-year-old was killed in 2020.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

15 seconds of mayhem on Gold Coast: FBI affidavit lifts curtain on FBG Duck murder case

“They subpoenaed me to court. I’ve gotta come here, man, and tell them, man. It ain’t no more discrepancies. I’m here. Long live Carlton,” he said in the video, referring to Duck, whose real name was Carlton Weekly.

FBI Special Agent Kevin Doyle testified Monday that Wiley called the Chicago Police Department a day after the shooting and offered to help with the investigation. Doyle said Wiley was paid $24,963 over roughly 15 installments for his FBI cooperation, which began in April 2021.

FBG Duck’s Gold Coast killing followed yearslong gang war involving girl gang assassin, other rapper, feds say

“He would provide background information. He reviewed surveillance footage [and] reviewed social media postings,” Doyle said, noting that Wiley was dropped as an informant for a time when he grew unresponsive.

Prior to Doyle’s testimony, one of the roughly dozen defense attorneys in the case noted that Wiley had been used twice as an informant more than a decade ago, calling for more information and details about payments.

‘O Block’: the most dangerous block in Chicago, once home to Michelle Obama

During that time, prosecutors say he lived at Parkway Gardens, a sprawling South Side apartment complex that’s also known as O Block and that police say is the gang faction’s power base. Rap lyrics stoked O Block’s yearslong gang war with the Tookaville faction of the Gangster Disciples with whom Duck claimed affiliation, according to prosecutors.

LaSheena Weekly, mother of Carlton Weekly, who performed as FBG Duck, speaks about the death of her son at a news conference in August 2020.

Ashlee Rezin /Sun-Times (file)

They have described Wiley as a member of the Black Disciples’ Newtown faction, though Doyle acknowledged he later ran with Duck’s crew and the Gangster Disciples. Asked whether he was concerned that Wiley may be “a little biased” based on his connection to Duck, Doyle simply said, “Yes.”

As the trial has played out, Wiley has posted multiple updates about the case and some of the people involved. Meanwhile, his testimony has remained a hot-button issue.

FBG Duck murder trial expected to spotlight Chicago’s gang, rap ties

On Oct. 10, the first day of jury selection, defense attorneys moved to block Wiley from testifying after he made a YouTube video that contradicted his grand jury testimony, according to the Chicago Tribune. Wiley testified that he recognized most of the defendants from surveillance footage but then claimed publicly that he couldn’t identify the gunmen.

$100K bounty was placed on killing Chicago rapper FBG Duck, informant told Chicago police

Wiley couldn’t be reached for comment.

Click here to read the Sun-Times’ Jan. 29 story “FBG Duck had $100K bounty on his head: informant.”

Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Tom Schuba

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