Reputed gang ‘enforcer’ charged in 2016 murder two weeks after acquittal in 2017 fatal shooting

Two weeks ago, Lamar Baker beat murder and attempted murder charges in a 2017 shooting that left one man dead and another wounded.

On Thursday, the 20-year-old man described by Cook County prosecutors as an “enforcer” for the Latin Kings, was charged with the 2016 killing of a 37-year-old man in Little Village.

Baker was in jail while awaiting his trial earlier this month for allegedly gunning down Hugo Guevara and wounding David Martinez in a January 2017 shooting. On May 2, he was acquitted of those charges. On May 3, an arrest warrant was issued for Baker — who remained jailed because of pending charges for allegedly attacking a man in the Cook County Jail last June — for the murder of Arturo Piña in April 2016.

Judge Susana Ortiz on ordered Baker held without bond for the 2016 murder.

At a bond hearing Thursday, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said Baker had bragged on Facebook about gunning down Piña, even posting pictures of the dead man. Baker also allegedly admitted to other witnesses that he had killed Piña.

Murphy said Baker and other members of the Latin Kings were patrolling the Little Village neighborhood in a vehicle, looking for rival gang members, when they spotted Piña walking in the 2800 block of South Kedvale Avenue on April 11, 2016. The driver pulled into an alley, let Baker out, and Baker emerged from a gangway and allegedly shot Piña multiple times, striking him in the face, chest, arm, shoulder and back, before running back through the gangway to the waiting car. Police recovered five .40 caliber shell casings at the scene, Murphy said. Piña died at Mount Sinai Hospital a few hours later.