Top Hobos member Paris Poe gets 3 life sentences, 2 others get life

A top member of the notorious Hobos “super gang” who was convicted of killing two police informants was sentenced in federal court Friday to three concurrent life sentences.

U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp noted in court that Paris “Poleroski” Poe’s history of “lawlessness” and “recklessness” should be met with “severe consequences” before announcing his sentence. Nevertheless, Tharp decided that Poe’s three life sentences should be served concurrently, and not consecutively, something the defense had lobbied for.

Following a trial that stretched from September of last year through January, Poe, 37, was found guilty of the public killings of a Chicago Police informant in 2006 and an FBI and Chicago Police informant in 2013. Prosecutors described him as a “cold blooded murderer.”

In a particularly gruesome attack on April 14, 2013, a paroled Poe cut off an electronic monitoring bracelet and traveled to south suburban Dolton to hunt Keith Daniels, who turned on the Hobos and wore a wire while buying drugs from the gang’s kingpin, 40-year-old Gregory “Bowlegs” Chester.

After emerging from behind a shrub, a masked Poe fired at a vehicle Daniels was riding in with his girlfriend and two young children. After Daniels jumped out and fell to the ground, Poe kept shooting as he stood over Daniels’ body.

During the trial, prosecutors also detailed the violent January 19, 2006 incident wherein Poe and one of his co-defendants, 40-year-old Arnold Council, gunned down Wilbert Moore after learning he was feeding information to Chicago Police. A photo of Moore’s lifeless, bullet-riddled corpse was displayed during Friday’s sentencing.

Poe showed little emotion during the hearing, though he appeared upset was when the judge said Poe didn’t have a close relationship with any of his seven children.

Poe’s attorneys said he had a difficult upbringing in poverty, and that a life sentence with no chance of ever getting out didn’t recognize that people can change.

“At 80 years old, Mr. Poe is not going to be a danger to anyone,” defense attorney Patrick Blegen told the judge. “There is no necessity for Mr. Poe to leave (prison) in a box.”

Tharp said there was no indication Poe would ever change.

“Mr. Poe is,” the judge said, “undeterrable.”

Authorities say the Hobos are a collection of Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples and others. The “renegade group” or “conglomerate” rose out of the Robert Taylor public housing project, records show.

In January, a jury found six men, including Chester, Poe and Council, guilty of a racketeering conspiracy and five murders committed over the course of a 10-year reign of terror on Chicago’s South and West sides.

Also convicted of the conspiracy were Gabriel “Louie” Bush, 38; William “Joe Buck” Ford, 37, and Derrick “D-Block” Vaughn, 31.

Council and Bush received life terms when they were sentenced Friday afternoon, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

Despite a jury tying Chester to two murders, Tharp on Thursday said evidence that Chester had ordered the killings was insufficient. Tharp instead sentenced Chester to 40 years in prison following a two-hour hearing. Also on Thursday, Tharp had handed down a 20-year sentence to Stanley “Smiley” Vaughn, an admitted member of the Hobos embroiled in the criminal conspiracy who pleaded guilty rather than go to trial. The judge said he must serve that sentence in addition to a 22-year prison sentence Vaughn is already serving.

Contributing: Associated Press