A 16-year-old boy who drove an accomplice to murder a man on the North Side on May 6 used the same gun to kill a pizza delivery driver on the South Side one day earlier, prosecutors said Friday.
Jyquwon McClellan allegedly committed the crimes while having two felony cases, including an aggravated carjacking, pending in juvenile court. In the North Side case, he was charged earlier this month with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. He is now charged with first-degree murder for the delivery driver’s death.
McClellan was the 25th person accused of killing or shooting — or attempting to kill or shoot — someone in Chicago while on bail for a felony this year. The alleged crimes involved at least 59 victims, 13 of whom died.
Pizza delivery driver killed
On May 5, around 8:45 p.m., Maryanne McCoy, 33, pulled onto the 7600 block of South Green with two pizzas for delivery. She was later discovered dead on the street with a gunshot wound to the chest. According to Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy, the pizzas were still in her car, along with a receipt that listed the phone number of the person who ordered them.
Investigators learned McCoy called the number moments before she was killed and had a two-minute conversation with whoever answered, possibly because the person who ordered the food asked that it be delivered to a closed school.
Murphy said McClellan, whose nickname is “Psycho,” had a conversation with someone earlier in the day ordering a pizza delivery so he could steal the driver’s car.
Detectives looked into the phone that was used to order the food. They discovered it was registered to an account named “Drake Hitta” and eventually learned that it belonged to McClellan, Murphy alleged.
Shortly before the killing, the phone was used to call McClellan’s mother, Murphy said. Nobody ever called the pizza shop to ask where the undelivered pizzas were, he continued. Nobody answered the phone when the restaurant staff called after McCoy failed to return from the delivery.
While police were investigating the murder, McClellan sent a picture of cops working the crime scene to his friend, 17-year-old Branko Fager, Murphy said
Another day, another murder
The following day, McClellan texted Fager that he needed to burn his clothes and shoes and that he was going to meet Fager with the gun, Murphy alleged.
That evening, McClellan allegedly drove Fager to the 4400 block of North Hamlin in a stolen Nissan Maxima. As they neared the car 37-year-old Michael Conrad was driving, Fager leaned out of the passenger-side window and began shooting into Conrad’s vehicle, Murphy said during a previous court hearing.
Police recovered 22 shell casings at the shooting scene. Conrad died, and a woman driving nearby was injured when one of the bullets shattered her windshield, sending glass into her eye, according to the allegations.
Evidence gathered
The casings at the scene of Conrad’s murder matched casings recovered at McCoy’s scene, meaning there is a “high confidence correlation” that the same gun killed both victims, according to Murphy.
McClellan’s phone pinged at both murder scenes and near the spot where the car used in Conrad’s murder was found after being set on fire, Murphy said.
McClellan was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile for a robbery he committed when he was 12 years old in May 2018. Murphy said a judge sentenced him to probation, which he violated twice.
But Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Kucaba argued strongly against Murphy’s efforts to hold McClellan without bail.
She insisted that McClellan “is a 16-year-old child, he should be treated as a 16-year-old child, and this case should be transferred back to juvenile court.”
“His mother is concerned. There is family that is interested,” Kucaba told Judge Kelly McCarthy. “I’m asking that you allow him to be released to his mother, who’s willing to take him.”
McCarthy granted the state’s no-bail request.
The “not horrible” series
This report continues our coverage of individuals accused of killing, shooting, or trying to kill or shoot others while on bond for a pending felony case. CWBChicago began our series of reports in November 2019 after Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans publicly stated, “we haven’t had any horrible
incidents occur” under the court’s bond reform initiative.
The actual number of murders and shootings committed by people on felony bail is undoubtedly much higher than the numbers seen here. Since 2017, CPD has brought charges in less than 5% of non-fatal shootings and 33% of murders, according to the city’s data.
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