Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office recently told Crain’s reporter Greg Hinz that it could not identify the people on electronic monitoring for murder or attempted murder in the city — or the judges who put them on EM — because the mayor’s office didn’t have access to court files.
So, CWBChicago reviewed the court files. Here’s part eight of our report about who the defendants are, what prosecutors accused them of doing, and which judges ordered them to go onto electronic monitoring if they posted bail.
We decided to look only at cases involving crimes alleged to have occurred in the city by defendants who were placed on electronic monitoring within the past year, regardless of when the crime occurred. That’s 35 cases. We use the defendants’ initials for domestic incidents to protect the victims’ identities.
It is not clear why Lightfoot has decided to focus on these individuals rather than people accused of similar charges who have are on bond without electronic monitoring.
Carlisle Lopez, 26, First-Degree Murder
Prosecutors charged Carlisle Lopez with first-degree murder in connection with an armed robbery that left the victim dead in 2013. According to a summary of the allegations by defense attorneys in court records, one of Lopez’s co-defendants stabbed the victim with a knife that a second co-defendant provided. Lopez is not accused of stabbing the victim, having a weapon, or planning the robbery.
Judge Israel Desierto ordered Lopez held on $500,000 bail in April 2013, and he remained in jail until last summer.
On June 30, 2021, Judge Kenneth Wadas granted a defense motion to reduce Lopez’s bail, setting it at $250,000 with EM. According to court records, Lopez’s grandmother posted his 10% deposit bond on August 2.
Deangelo Joyce, 30, First-Degree Murder
Last March, prosecutors accused Deangelo Joyce of being the getaway driver for two men who shot and killed a blind man while apparently targeting someone else on a Lawndale street in the spring of 2018.
During Joyce’s initial bond hearing, prosecutors said he waited in the car as two co-defendants got out and started shooting at a group of people, including 50-year-old Johnny Shanklin, who died.
The shooters returned to the car, which sped away, then crashed during a police pursuit a short time later. Police arrested the two alleged shooters, but the car’s driver got away.
Cops arrested Joyce last year after investigators linked him to DNA on the crashed car’s airbag, according to prosecutors.
On March 10, 2021, Judge Charles Beach set Joyce’s bail at $300,000 with EM and pointed out that prosecutors did not offer any evidence that Joyce knew what the other two men were planning to do.
Louis Hicks, 36, First-Degree Murder
Louis Hicks is accused of shooting a suspected shoplifter in the face at a Walgreens in Belmont Craigin on June 12, 2019.
According to a Chicago Tribune account of his initial bail hearing, Hicks frequented the store at 4817 West Fullerton, which is near his home, and a Walgreens employee thought he was a police officer because he had helped with security issues several times while carrying a gun and a badge.
On the day of the alleged murder, confronted Sircie Varnardo, 46, who was suspected of stealing from the store, prosecutors said. Hicks, who stood 10-inches taller and weighed 100 pounds more than Varnardo, slammed her to the ground, kneeled over her, and put a gun to her face, the paper reported. Some witnesses allegedly heard him say he was a Chicago police officer.
“You’re a bitch,” Hicks allegedly said before firing one shot that went through Varnardo’s upper lip. Prosecutors said he picked up his shell casing and left the scene.
The Tribune said Hicks had a history of arrests impersonating a federal employee, drugs, and assault, but he has never been a police officer.
Judge Arthur Willis ordered Hicks held without bail on June 21, 2019. Judge Diana Kenworthy reduced that to $350,000 with electronic monitoring on April 3, 2020, and Hicks’ father posted his 10% deposit bond one year later, on April 12, 2021, according to court records.
Previous reporting
- Who are the accused murderers and attempted murderers on electronic monitoring? The mayor says she doesn’t know. So, we found out. (January 13, 2022)
- Outraged about alleged murderers being on electronic monitoring, politicians propose a new law — but it doesn’t do what they think it does (January 13, 2022)
- Who are the accused murderers on electronic monitoring in Chicago? Take a look. Part 3. (January 14, 2022)
- Who are the people on electronic monitoring in Chicago while accused of murder and attempted murder? We found out. Part 4. (January 15, 2022)
- Who are the people on electronic monitoring in Chicago while accused of murder and attempted murder? We found out. Part 5 (January 16, 2022)
- The people on electronic monitoring in Chicago include a woman who is accused of shooting a cop in 2019. Part 6. (January 17, 2022)
- Surprise! Man convicted of murder in 2007 is on electronic monitoring in Chicago — waiting to be sentenced. (January 18, 2022)
