"And the Black Souls business enterprise on the West Side of Chicago could go on as usual."ĭillon said recorded conversations among Black Souls members would show the gang had a corporate-seeming organization, where dealers were given sales quotas to meet, and leaders contemplated ways to increase sales and expand markets.ĭefense lawyers in turn took swipes at the credibility of a star state's witness, Alex Williams, noting he had received $100,000 in payments from the government as an informant, and that he'd been arrested for selling drugs just weeks ago. "Claude Snulligan would never set foot in a courtroom to testify against Teron Odum or any member of the Black Souls," Dillon said. Duavon "L'il Sap" Spears allegedly crept up behind Snulligan outside a cell phone store and shot Snulligan in the back of the head. Not organized by the Black Souls."ĭillon highlighted a few key points in the case against the Black Souls, leading her opening statement by recounting the murder of Claude Snulligan, who was murdered in 2012 after he pressed battery charges against alleged top Black Souls lieutenant Teron Odum. "You're gonna hear about drug sales, I'll give you that," Becker said. The case was the first- and so far, one of only two- prosecutions in Illinois to use a state Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organization laws that were adopted in 2012, based on federal laws that had been used to tackle the mob and drug cartels since the 1960s. "This gang committed murders over and over and over." "These six defendants flooded this area of the West Side with heroin and cocaine," she said. McHale's calendar, the racketeering trial - alleging the gang was behind a multimillion-dollar drug business and at least six murders - is setting up to be one of the longest in recent memory at the courthouse.Īddressing the set of 20 jurors and alternates in the courtroom- as a hedge against complications, the group was larger than the usual complement of 12 and two to four alternates- Assistant State's Attorney Erica Dillon outlined a case that would include testimony from multiple former Black Souls, tapes of wiretapped conversations and even recordings of a police informant allegedly killed by the gang. With 10 weeks blocked on Cook County Judge Michael B. The view for the six defendants and the jurors won't change until nearly Christmas.
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