CHICAGO: Jurors who heard the biggest gang trial in recent Chicago history on Wednesday convicted the core leadership of the Hobos, a group described by prosecutors as an “all-star team” of criminals whose ruthlessness reflected the kind of violence that led to the city’s alarming spike in homicides.
To extend their power on the South Side, prosecutors said, the Hobos cultivated a reputation for brutality so terrifying to witnesses that some chose to go to jail rather than provide evidence against gang leaders.
The Hobos gang was “as bad as it gets,” U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon said after the verdicts, explaining that the six defendants led a gang that was integral to a cycle of violence that often begins with the recruitment of small boys seeking a sense of security and belonging.
The conspiracy allegedly involved the killings of at least nine people, including gang rivals and government witnesses. One victim was fatally shot in 2013 in front of his screaming stepchildren to stop him from testifying at the trial. Another incident involved the robbery of NBA player Bobby Simmons at gunpoint outside a nightclub for a $200,000 diamond-and-gold chain.
After hearing three months of testimony, jurors deliberated for six days before returning with a decision against accused Hobos boss Gregory “Bowlegs” Chester, alleged hitman Paris Poe and four others. All now face the prospect of life in prison when sentenced on June 23.
Poe looked over his shoulder at spectators during the reading of the verdicts, and he smiled as the jury left the courtroom. Chester hugged his lawyer before being led away to jail with his co-defendants. Tight security included keeping jurors’ names permanently sealed.
Some witnesses were visibly nervous as they took the stand. One refused outright to speak against the gang, telling the judge, “I choose not to testify for the sake of me and my family.” The witness was held in contempt and given a 60-day sentence.
The convictions followed a bloody year on the streets of Chicago.
The nation’s third-largest city logged 762 homicides in 2016, the highest tally in 20 years and more than the combined total of the two largest cities — New York and Los Angeles.
Defense attorneys did not speak to reporters.
Police have said repeatedly that most of the city’s homicides involve gang connections, perhaps as many as 80 percent.
Poe was accused of killing a government witness named Keith Daniels, who was a gang associate-turned-informant, days after Chester’s arrest and after Daniels testified to a grand jury in the racketeering case. According to prosecutors, he stood over Daniels and shot him more than a dozen times at close range as the man’s 4-year-old stepdaughter and 6-year-old stepson watched.
Chester, 39, was the only defendant to testify, insisting the Hobos gang did not even exist despite his full-arm tattoo emblazoned with the words: “Hobo: The Earth is Our Turf.”
Born with badly deformed legs, Chester scoffed when asked if someone who struggled to walk could head a gang. “A crippled gang leader?” he answered. “No, sir.”