Suspect Held Without Bond In Murder Of Officer Bailey
UPDATED 07/27/11 5:08 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 24-year-old South Side man who allegedly bragged about gunning down Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey was ordered held without bond Wednesday.
Antwon Carter, of the 1200 block of E. 69th. Street, was charged with first-degree murder of a police officer, felony murder and attempted armed robbery in connection with the case, in which Bailey was shot and killed just steps from his front door last summer.
Cook County Judge Israel Desierto also ordered him held in lieu of $500,000 bond for an unrelated aggravated vehicular carjacking charge during which Carter allegedly attacked a motorist at 75th and Cornell. That attacked happened just a few days after Bailey was killed, according to Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney's office.
As CBS 2's Susanna Song reports, Bailey's family is relieved that they might finally get justice.
Bailey, 62, was gunned down outside his Park Manor house at 74th Street and Evans Avenue on July 18, 2010, after returning home from a day working on the security detail of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley.
"I can still see my husband lying on the ground with his eyes open, and they weren't moving, and I felt so hurt; so angry," said Officer Bailey's widow, Pamela Bailey.
Bailey was still in uniform as he returned to his home and was polishing the new Buick Regal that he had bought himself as a retirement gift, when Carter allegedly approached him with a gun to try to rob Bailey.
Prosecutors said Bailey drew his service weapon and both started shooting.
"As carter fled the scene on foot, he was observed running away from the scene, still pointing his weapon at officer bailey," Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said.
Sources say detectives turned their eyes on Carter because he admitted guilt while sitting in prison for another crime. He allegedly told several fellow inmates that he had killed Bailey, and also implicated himself in letters.
As CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports, Carter was in jail for another crime when something he said to another inmate led detectives to him.
"It's what we're put on this earth to do. Everybody has something they need to do in life," Chicago Police Det. Dan Stover said after Carter's bond hearing. "The way my partner and I look at it, that's what we were meant to do."
Stover and his partner spent one year focused on one thing – finding Bailey's killer.
They were in court on Wednesday when Carter stood before a judge, charged with shooting bailey three times during a botched robbery.
Chicago Police Det. Tim Murphy said Carter admitted to the shooting.
"Me and my partner, interviewed him and it was a very, very detailed confession," Murphy said.
Carter was out on parole at the time of the murder, but one look at his record and you wonder why. In 2004, he violated probation and was sentenced to six years in prison. In 2008, while on parole again, a felony possession conviction got him a 30-month sentence.
And just 15 months before Bailey's murder, Carter was found guilty of attacking a police officer and got three years in jail. He was on parole for that crime when he allegedly killed Bailey.
Four days after Bailey's murder, prosecutors say Carter carjacked a woman at gunpoint and was later arrested for the crime. He was in jail for that when he allegedly began talking to another inmate about killing a cop at 74th and Evans, Alvarez said.
And three months after Bailey's murder, Carter was arrested on eight counts of felony gun charges, in a case that is still pending.
He also was convicted of criminal trespass in 2006, and possession of stolen goods in 2004. In the 2004 case, Cater was sentenced to boot camp, but violated his probation and was sentenced to six years in prison, although he appears to have served little of the sentence.
Carter has been in prison since the Bailey murder. He was returned to Chicago for the court appearance Wednesday.
"There are the laws that allow for parole and maybe they should be looked at to be changed," Alvaraez said of the fact that Carter was on parole for attacking another police officer when he allegedly shot Bailey.
Asked if she was frustrated that Carter was on the street at all when he allegedly killed her husband, Bailey's widow Pamela Bailey said, "It's frustrating, he shouldn't be on the street, he's dangerous. And I hope from this case today that he's never on the street to harm anybody ever again."
Pamela Bailey and Danielle Drayton, her daughter, said they never lost faith. Now they are one step closer to having closure.
"On the flip side, I can't help but be grieved about his family," Drayton said. "We're all losing somebody."
Carter's public defender told the judge he doesn't want to talk to anyone now about this crime.
