Woman charged in Endia Martin case released to home confinement

A woman facing federal charges connected to the fatal 2014 shooting of 14-year-old Endia Martin will be allowed to await trial at a relative’s home.

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve ordered Vandetta Redwood confined to that relative’s home around the clock and placed her on electronic monitoring. She must get mental health treatment, and she is not allowed to be unsupervised around minors older than 5 years old except for her daughter.

Redwood has been in federal custody since February, accused of supplying the loaded .38-caliber revolver allegedly used by a teenage relative to take Endia’s life. Redwood was also charged with possessing a firearm within 1,000 feet of Oliver Wendell Holmes Elementary School and Visitation Catholic School.

Her cousin, Donnell Flora, was convicted in Cook County court in January of first-degree murder in Endia’s death, as well as for the attempted murder of another girl wounded in the incident. Redwood refused to testify when called to the stand during his trial Jan. 28, and her attorney now claims federal prosecutors are punishing her for exercising her constitutional right not to testify.

A federal grand jury didn’t indict Redwood until Feb. 10. However, she dodged charges early on in the case when Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. dismissed mob action and obstruction of justice charges filed against Redwood in the days after the shooting on April 28, 2014.

Endia’s best friend, Lanekia Reynolds, had been fighting with the alleged shooter on social media after the two got into a heated spat over a boy, Cook County prosecutors have said. She was also hurt in the shooting.

Redwood has been ordered into the custody of Patricia Johnson, who described Redwood in court as her daughter-in-law’s sister, as well as Johnson’s adult daughter, Shawanza Kinsey. Redwood is set to go to trial July 11.