Feds to turn to informant murder as case against Hobos nears end

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Jurors in U.S. District Court may finally hear details this week about the killing of Keith Daniels, an informant from Dolton. Prosecutors say Daniels was murdered by a member of the Hobos gang. | Provided

A group of federal jurors have already endured two months of testimony detailing the bloodshed and violence allegedly unleashed on the South and West sides by Chicago’s so-called “super gang,” the Hobos.

But prosecutors at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse now appear ready to shed light on the gang’s most notorious slaying — the April 14, 2013 assassination of FBI informant Keith Daniels in front of his two young children.

Testimony describing Daniels’ murder, which may begin as early as this week, could finally bring the government’s case to a close 11 weeks after opening statements. But juror issues have sometimes left the trial schedule difficult to predict. Already, prosecutors have shared with the jury some of the evidence Daniels risked his life to collect.

The Daniels murder offered an emphatic exclamation point to the Hobos’ decade-long crime spree, according to the feds. The gang has been described as an “all-star team of the worst of the worst” of Chicago’s street gangs and has been tied to nine murders, including Daniels’.

Paris Poe allegedly killed Daniels for snitching on the gang. As Daniels, his girlfriend and their kids returned home from a family dinner that day, a gunman allegedly stepped from behind a shrub and began to riddle their car with bullets.

Paris Poe, a reputed Hobos gang assassin, is on trial in Chicago. | File photo

Paris Poe, a reputed Hobos gang assassin, is on trial in Chicago. | File photo

The feds say Daniels leaped from the car and fell to the ground as a bullet pierced his heart. Daniels was “gasping for his last few breaths” as the gunman stood over him, firing “gunshot after gunshot after gunshot,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Otlewski has said.

But the feds have hinted that someone helped Poe murder Daniels. And in a filing last week, Otlewski noted that “Keith Daniels was murdered by two individuals who used handguns then fled in a Chevy Trailblazer.”

Poe’s lawyer, Patrick Blegen, followed up with a court filing Sunday that called Otlewski’s claim “inconsistent” with the prior testimony of Daniels’ girlfriend, who reported a single assailant assisted by a second person in a get-away car.

Daniels’ children, who were 6 and 4 at the time of his murder, have told authorities that the person who shot their father was wearing a mask, records show. But their mother, Daniels’ girlfriend, has said she could identify Poe as the shooter because “the black beanie he had on crept up on his head when he was shooting,” according to court filings.

Attorney Patrick Blegen is representing Paris Poe in U.S. District Court. | File photo

Attorney Patrick Blegen is representing Paris Poe in U.S. District Court. | File photo

It is not yet clear whether Daniels’ children will be called to testify.

Meanwhile, prosecutors detailed last week a recorded jailhouse phone call between alleged Hobos leader Gregory “Bowlegs” Chester and an unidentified male on the day of Daniels’ murder. During that call, Chester and the other male made reference to a “mama only son,” how “sh– just got real,” and how Poe “shi–ed on hisself … four, five times.”

The feds claim it was all coded language describing how Poe shot Daniels — whose brother had died in spring 2011 — four or fives times. But Blegen called the feds’ excerpts of that conversation “cryptic at best” and argued prosecutors have not proven a link between the comments and Daniels’ murder.

After Daniels’ murder, Poe went into hiding and was finally arrested near Madison, Wis., on May 2, 2013. Last week, prosecutors revealed text messages recovered from one of Poe’s phones after his arrest. In the texts, Poe allegedly sought “Gas m0ney an f00d,” which would help him stay on the run.

But the feds say they have not been able to identify the person Poe was texting for help.

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