#8: “Highly active” gang member charged with killing rival over haircut

A Chicago man shot and killed a 16-year-old rival gang member over a haircut last week while on affordable bail for discharging a handgun, prosecutors said.

Jesus Moro, 21, is the eighth person charged with killing or shooting someone in Chicago this year while on bail for other serious felonies.

Prosecutors said 16-year-old Julian Castillo, a member of the Two Six street gang, was visiting a man on the first floor of a home in Chicago Lawn last Friday evening while Moro, a Latin King gang member, was on the second floor.

When the man went upstairs to get a glass of water, Moro’s fellow Latin King member, 20-year-old Sergio Rodriguez, began to ask him about his haircut and said the cut was a Two Six style, Assistant State’s Attorney Angel Eggleston said.

Rodriguez allegedly pulled out a gun and followed the man downstairs, where he began to question Castillo about his gang affiliation. When Castillo said he was Two Six, Rodriguez began punching him in the face repeatedly while yelling that he hats Two Six because one of its members killed his friend, Eggleston continued.

Castillo ran from the home, and Moro allegedly chased after him for over a block before Moro shot him repeatedly, and Castillo fell to the ground. The shooting was allegedly captured on surveillance video.

Moro returned to the home with a gun in his hand and laughed when Castillo’s friend asked him what he had done, Eggleston said.

At that point, Rodriguez ran over to the victim and punched him repeatedly as he struggled to get up after being shot, according to Eggleston. He then allegedly ran and hid in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu parked in front of the home where the confrontation began.

Police found Moro on the second floor of the home and pulled Rodriguez from the car’s trunk, Eggleston said. The gun that Moro allegedly used to kill Castillo was also in the trunk, she said.

On July 3, police arrested Moro after CPD surveillance cameras recorded him firing a handgun outside John Spry Elementary School in Little Village, according to court records. In his arrest report, cops called Moro “a highly active Latin King gang member.”

Judge David Navarro ordered Moro held in lieu of $100,000 the next day, but Judge LeRoy Martin Jr cut that in half a few days later, and Moro went home by posting a $5,000 deposit bond, records show.

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Moro went to prison for a year following a nearly identical incident in October 2017. In that case, police surveillance cameras recorded footage of Moro firing a gun at a passing car just a block away from Spry Elementary, according to CPD records. Police allegedly recovered a gun from Moro’s bedroom after that incident and he admitted to “testing the gun.”

On Monday, Moro found himself in front of Judge Navarro again on the new murder charges. Navarro ordered him held without bail for Castillo’s slaying and held without bail for violating terms of bail in his pending reckless discharge case.

Rodriguez, who received an 18-month prison sentence for reckless discharge of a firearm in 2019, was also ordered held without bail.

#8: “Highly active” gang member charged with killing rival over haircut — while on affordable bail

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