Amid nearly two dozen shell casings found at the scene of a murder of a man who was in town for his brother’s funeral, Chicago police investigators discovered a cellphone they say was left behind by the killer.
The unlocked phone, which was found shortly after the Valentine’s Day shooting in Austin, contained text messages from 28-year-old Calvin Jones bragging that his gun had a “cheat code,” Cook County prosecutors said Thursday.
After Jones was arrested earlier this week for Pierre Anderson’s murder, he allegedly told investigators that a “cheat code” referred to a drum magazine, which can significantly increase the number of rounds a firearm can hold.
Jones, on the cellphone police recovered, also talked to someone about a Chevrolet Impala he had rented from Hertz — the same type of car that was seen on surveillance footage when the 37-year-old Anderson was gunned down in the 5900 block of West Bloomingdale Avenue, prosecutors said.
After the Impala was located, detectives learned that Jones had rented the vehicle in his name and returned it days after the murder, prosecutors said.
A 9mm shell casing was found trapped in the Impala’s windshield wiper. That casing matched the 23 others found at the scene of Anderson’s murder, prosecutors said.
Anderson, in town for his brother’s funeral, had left a friend’s house shortly after midnight when he was shot twice in the back while walking to his car, prosecutors said. He was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was later pronounced dead.
Prosecutors could not produce any witnesses who saw Jones pull the trigger, a defense attorney argued Thursday, noting that anyone could have used the Impala and cellphone at the time of the murder.
Judge Susana Ortiz said she believed there was enough proof that Jones was involved and ordered him held without bail for Anderson’s murder.
Jones was expected back in court March 23.
