2 Mafia Insane Vice Lords members charged with murder in July 2017 shooting

Two admitted members of the Mafia Insane Vice Lords street gang are facing murder charges in a shooting last summer in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, prosecutors said Thursday.

Javon Almond and Ronnie Burnett each face a count of first-degree murder in the July 13, 2017 shooting of 30-year-old Derrick Murray, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Almond, 22, was denied bail at a hearing Thursday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse. Burnett, 23, was previously held without bail at a hearing May 26, according to prosecutors.

About 12:20 p.m. the day of the shooting, Murray was walking in the 4600 block of West Augusta when a red, four-door vehicle pulled up beside him, prosecutors said. Almond, Burnett and a third person got out of the car and opened fire while a fourth person waited in the driver’s seat.

Murray was taken to Stroger Hospital and pronounced dead, police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

Investigators recovered about 30 shell casings at the scene, which tests showed had been fired from three different weapons, prosecutors said. Murray was shot 17 times, and suffered wounds to his chest, back and arms.

An alert was issued by Chicago Police for the red vehicle, which had been reported stolen earlier in the month, prosecutors said. Officers spotted the vehicle the next day and stopped it. Almond, who was in the vehicle at the time of the stop, took off running, but was taken into custody.

Inside the vehicle, officers found cell phones that contained videos of Almond in the red car holding a gun with an extended clip. The clothing he was wearing matched what was seen in surveillance video of the shooting recorded the day before, prosecutors said.

Two loaded guns were also found in the vehicle and both matched fired casing located at the scene of the killing, prosecutors said.

Almond was released without charges as the investigation continued, authorities said. He was later taken into custody and charged with two unrelated weapons violations.

Illinois Department of Corrections records show he was convicted of possession of a firearm by a gang member and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He is currently serving a three-year sentence at the Pontiac Correctional Center.

Burnett, of the Austin neighborhood, was taken into custody May 25 in Joliet, Chicago Police said.

Both were scheduled to appear in court next on Friday.