Ark. Man And Prison Inmate Charged In '02 Slayings
Updated 04/13/11 - 4:06 p.m.
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Two men — one in federal prison on a cocaine conviction and another who had been hiding out in Arkansas — have been charged in the 2002 West Side shooting of a pair of women who were dancing in a vacant lot.
Terrance Freeman and his cousin Tyris Smith, shot Dorothy Richardson and Tina Jackson after they got into an argument with another young woman who Smith paid for a "sexually provocative dance," Cook County prosecutors said.
Smith grabbed the girl, angry because the woman didn't show enough skin for the money he gave her, prosecutors said.
The woman allegedly cut Smith with a small knife before he fled the scene in a car driven by another individual.
An hour later, Smith came back to the scene, in the 5000 block of West Madison, with Freeman. Both men opened fire with 9mm pistols, prosecutors said.
The woman Smith got into the argument with was gone. But Richardson, 27, who had been with the woman, and Jackson, 20, were "hanging-out, partying, listening to music and dancing" in the vacant lot, authorities said. Another woman was just getting out of a car after leaving a nearby club,.
Smith chased Richardson and shot her multiple times, prosecutors said.
Jackson was shot in the head while talking to a friend, prosecutors said.
The woman exiting the car was shot in the side but survived.
The bullets recovered from the victims' bodies came from two different sets of guns, according to ballistics tests.
Witnesses identified Smith and Freeman as the gunmen in the June 23, 2002 incident, according to prosecutors.
Judge Israel Desierto ordered Freeman, 32, held on a no bail warrant Wednesday.
Freeman, who was located in Arkansas, also was held for violating his probation for a 2003 possession of a control substance conviction. While in Arkansas, Freeman, who is nicknamed "Country," was convicted for the unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
Smith, also known as Marcus Freeman, is currently serving a 10-year sentenced in federal prison for a 2007 conspiracy to distribute cocaine conviction. He previously served five years in prison for defacing a firearm. Smith was not in court Wednesday.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
