A man already serving 21 years in prison for a 2000 shooting in the West Side Austin neighborhood has had charges against him upgraded after one of the victims died last year.
Robert Lipsey, 33, was found guilty of two counts of attempted first-degree murder on Dec. 2, 2002, and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
First-degree murder charges have now been filed against Lipsey, because one of his victims died 15 years after the shooting.
On April 13, 2000, Lipsey walked up to Anton Johnson and another person in the 300 block of North Lorel and opened fire, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Lesley Gool said Thursday during a bond hearing for the murder charge.
Johnson was shot in the back and the head, while the other victim suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen, prosecutors said. Johnson was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Johnson, 36, who lived in the 1300 block of South Massasoit, died July 11, 2015, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy found he died of complications of remote multiple gunshot wounds, specifically a blood clot, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Lipsey admitted in a handwritten statement that after he shot Johnson in the back, the victim fell to the ground and Lipsey then walked up to him and shot him in the back of the head, prosecutors said. He also admitted he shot the other victim simply because he was there.
During his bond hearing, Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered Lipsey held on a $1 million bond.
For the 2002 conviction, Lipsey is eligible for parole in March 2020, according to the IDOC.
