Teen To Be Sentenced In McClendon Murders
CHICAGO (CBS) - One of the teens accused in the murder of a beloved couple from Hammond, Ind., could learn his fate Tuesday.
The bodies of Ruby and Milton McClendon were found on Oct. 19, 2009, about two miles from their home in a Calumet City forest preserve. Ruby McClendon was shot multiple times, while Milton McClendon was killed by a single shot to the head.
Previously, had been robbed and their home had been ransacked.
The two suspects in the murder have pleaded guilty. One of them, Gregory Brooks Jr.,19, is scheduled for sentencing Thursday in Lake Superior Court in Lake County, Ind. The other, Reo Jonta Thompson, 17, is to be sentenced Thursday.
Prosecutors alleged Brooks and co-defendant Reo Jonta Thompson, 17, beat the McClendons; stole $50 in cash, a rifle, jewelry and other items; then locked the couple in a closet.
The McClendons are the parents of former CLTV talk show host Garrard McClendon.
Brooks and Thompson were seen by multiple witnesses riding in the McClendons' stolen Cadillac El Dorado in the days after the killings, and were captured on surveillance video selling jewelry stolen from the McClendons at a Hammond pawn shop.
The car was found abandoned on the Dan Ryan Expressway near Garfield Boulevard, and a witness described two males walking away from the car, which had run out of gas, prosecutors said.
