Recently in Murder & Manslaughter Category

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that 35-year-old Edward Brown and 26-year-old Steven Fox, a Chicago rapper commonly known as "Sincere the Realist," were charged with beating a man to death for accidentally scratching the rapper's car. 

Victim Larry Brown accidentally caused minor damage to Steven Fox's car when he was returning home early in the early hours of June 17, according to assistant state's attorney Yolanda Lippert. He reportedly didn't even know his car grazed the other car, so he left it parked in front of his home.

Edward Brown and Steven Fox followed him, starting yelling and then attacked him with his fists, according to Yolanda Lippert. 

City Hall lifted its two-year slowdown in hiring just a day after off-duty Chicago Police officer Michael Bailey was killed in what officials believe was a robbery, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Plans are underway to add as many as 100 additional officers.

Sadly, Chicago criminal defense attorneys have no shortage of new clients as the city grapples with an escalation of violent crime. The slaying of Michael Bailey, who was less than one month away from retirement, marks the third killing of a Chicago officer in two months.

West Side resident Lisa Baywood's bail was set at $1.5 million on charges that she set her disabled boyfriend on fire, burning 65 percent of his body, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Doctors at Stroger Hospital don't expect him to survive and said his condition is too unstable to perform skin grafts.

Now her Chicago criminal defense attorney has the unenviable task of defending against charges of attempted murder, aggravated arson, heinous battery and aggravated domestic battery.

Soon after the U.S. Supreme Court declared Chicago's handgun ban unconstitutional, the city passed a new gun ordinance banning gun shops within the city limits, as reported by the Chicago Tribune and elsewhere. But while legal observers debate over whether the new law will survive legal scrutiny, Chicago continues to suffer from gun-related violence.

Two people were killed and at least 19 were injured due to violence, mostly from gunshots, just this past weekend, the Chicago Tribune reported. Eight of the injuries occurred from Saturday evening through early Sunday morning.

Five years after two young girls were murdered in Zion, Lake County prosecutors are rethinking their case in light of new DNA evidence, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. It appears they may have charged the wrong man in the murders of Laura Hobbs and Krystal Tobias.

Keith Grant, an assistant public defender assigned as the Illinois criminal defense attorney for defendant Jerry Hobbs, said DNA taken from 8-year-old victim (and Jerry Hobbs' daughter) Laura Hobbs matches another man:

"Since we developed this profile, we have been confident that it leads to only one conclusion, and that is that our client is innocent."

Although a Chicago criminal defense attorney rarely can claim his or her client's 2nd Amendment right to bear arms when defending against murder charges, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling dealt a blow to Chicago's handgun ban, as covered by the Chicago Tribune and elsewhere.

As Mayor Richard Daley promised before the 5-4 ruling overturning a local municipality's right to enforce certain gun laws, the city plans to revise its gun-restriction law to fit within the confines of the new ruling, the Tribune reported. The 1982 city ordinance was challenged by a city resident who wanted to purchase a handgun to protect his home.

A gay love triangle involving Jeffrey Mundt, Joseph Banis and a third man whom authorities declined to identify ended in murder, according to NBC Chicago. The pair now are being held in a Louisville, Kentucky jail after police found the body of the third man stuffed in a plastic tub and buried about four feet below the ground.

The strange tale began when the couple had a sexual relationship with the third man last year. They allegedly had planned to rob him of drugs but ended up killing him, then they decided to hide the body underneath the basement of Jeffrey Mundt's Louisville home.

Since he wasn't reported missing, police were not searching for him nor did they have any reason to suspect anything.

Steven Kellmann, a 30-year-old Brookfield man, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. The victim was 65-year-old retired teacher Marilyn Fay.

There may not be much that his Chicago criminal defense attorney can for him, if the evidence holds up in court, since Steven Kellmann has a long arrest record.

Marilyn Fay's body was found in her Brookfield home with multiple stab wounds. Authorities told reporters they were tipped off when they found her 2002 SUV parked two blocks away from her home. They conducted a well-being check and discovered her body.

Cook County probation officer Michael Dickerson, a gang intelligence officer of 20 years, was charged with soliciting a hit man to kill his wife, according to the Chicago Tribune. He was ordered held on $500,000 bail.

If convicted on charges of solicitation of murder for hire, the 47-year-old faces between 20 and 40 years in prison. And if the evidence is strong, as prosecutors claim, there's a good chance his Chicago criminal attorney will suggest a guilty plea.

Michael Dickerson apparently asked the wrong guy to do the job. The would-be hit-man, who was offered just $1,000 for the hit, went to his lawyer and then the two of them met with Cook County sheriff's officials and members of the Cook County state's attorney's office.

Fifteen-year-old Cicero boy Miguel Villalba was shot and killed after an argument escalated into full-blown violence, the Chicago Tribune reported.

He and his 16-year-old sister (who was not named in the article) were near Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School with some other friends Sunday evening when they were approached by suspected gang members. Witnesses told officers and reporters that the two groups exchanged words, followed by a few thrown bricks.

As the clash escalated, one of the members of the second group left and returned with a gun. Several shots were fired and Miguel Villalba took a bullet to the head; he was pronounced dead at Loretto Hospital at 8:57 p.m. that evening.