After delivering guilty verdicts to three “Goonie Boss” gang members in a lengthy racketeering trial, a federal jury in Chicago found that most of the six killings the men were convicted of were not carried out in a “cold, calculated and premeditated manner.”
Convicted on Wednesday were reputed gang faction leader Romeo “O-Dog” Blackman and two alleged henchmen, Terrance “T” Smith and Jolicious “Jo Jo” Turman.
In light of the guilty findings on the marquee charge of racketeering conspiracy, jurors were tasked with making specific findings, including whether the killings were carried out in a “cold, calculated and premeditated” manner. U.S. District Judge John Blakey can use those findings when considering what sentence to impose.
Blackman was found guilty of five murders, but only two of them were part of a concerted scheme, jurors found. Smith was found guilty in two of those same killings, but just one was part of a plan. Jurors found that the one murder attributed to Turman was not part of a larger scheme.
Despite Thursday’s findings, Blackman and Smith already face mandatory life sentences because the jury found them liable for multiple murders and attempted murders as part of the racketeering conspiracy. Turman faces a minimum of 20 years on the racketeering charge.
In closing arguments Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen McCurry said the circumstances of the shootings showed they were pre-planned: the Goonies went to rival territory on purpose seeking out “opps,” deliberately scoped out their targets, and planned escape routes.
“They each knew what was expected of them as part of the gang, and that was to shoot and to kill other people,” McCurry said. “The Goonies got out early, before their opps, and they stayed out as long as they could … They were all offensive murders in which these defendants went to an opp territory and shot and killed.”
Attorneys for Blackman urged jurors to look closely at each shooting, noting that other gang members were arguably more involved in carrying them out, and that evidence of Blackman’s direct involvement was weak.
“Whose plan was it? Who participated in this plan?” attorney Kelsey Killion asked. “The government has simply not proven beyond a reasonable doubt it was Romeo Blackman.”
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Proceedings were delayed by nearly two hours Thursday because Blackman at first refused to be brought from the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he is being detained. In court, Blackman leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling while Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry recounted to jurors the murders that Blackman and Smith were convicted of a day earlier.
While all three defendants were found guilty of racketeering conspiracy, jurors returned a mixed verdict on the indictment’s other counts, which included murder and attempted murder. No sentencing date has been set.
The Goonie gang trial is the latest in a string of major racketeering cases brought by the U.S. attorney’s office aimed at the leaders of Chicago’s splintered gang factions that prosecutors say are driving the city’s rampant gun violence.
Over five weeks of testimony, jurors watched killings play out on surveillance video, saw social media posts where Goonie members allegedly kept a tally of victims and “rejoiced” in the death of rivals, and heard testimony from a parade of cooperating witnesses who described each member’s alleged role in the organization.
Unlike more traditional street gangs that were highly organized and focused on protecting drug turf, the Goonies allegedly engaged in a shockingly petty cycle of violence with rivals, where shooting at “opps” was an almost daily routine and killings were bragged about on Facebook and other social media.
