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CHICAGO (AP) — A federal jury has convicted six alleged gang members in the 2020 fatal shooting of Chicago rapper FBG Duck, a killing that prosecutors said was part of long-running violence over gang territories on the city’s South Side.
Jurors deliberated for about 16 hours over three days before announcing Wednesday that they had reached a verdict, convicting the six defendants of murder in the aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder.
FBG Duck, whose real name was Carlton Weekly, was shot 16 times outside the luxury clothing store Dolce & Gabbana in Chicago’s upscale Gold Coast neighborhood on Aug. 4, 2020. The 26-year-old's girlfriend and another man were wounded in the attack.
The jury convicted Charles Liggins, 32; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Christopher Thomas, 24; Marcus Smart, 25; Tacarlos Offerd, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34, of murder in the aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder. Liggins, Roberson, Thomas, Smart and Offerd were also convicted of using a firearm in Weekly’s murder.
A life sentence is mandatory for a conviction of murder in aid of racketeering. Sentencing hearings for all six are scheduled for August and September.
Prosecutors said Weekly was killed as part of a yearslong gang conflict between factions of the Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples on Chicago's South Side. The six defendants were purportedly members or associates of O-Block, a rival faction of Black Disciples, prosecutors said.
Morris Pasqual, the acting U.S. attorney in Chicago, said his office will continue working with law enforcement “to prioritize combating the unacceptable level of gang violence in Chicago.”
“The jury’s verdicts today hold the six defendants accountable for a brutal murder that took the life of Carlton Weekly," Pasqual said in a statement.
Weekly's mother, LaSheena Weekly, wept Wednesday as she listened to the jury verdicts in an overflow courtroom at a federal courthouse in Chicago.
“When I go home and tell my grandkids that their father(’s) justice has been served, that’s going to be a big burden lifted off my shoulders,” she told reporters after the verdicts were announced. “I just want to thank the United States government for doing a very good job in making sure that these guys will never hurt another mom and another child again."