Almost a year before Keith Daniels was shot to death in front of his three young children and girlfriend in 2013, his cover as an FBI informant was blown, an attorney for the man accused in his murder said Wednesday.
Daniels, 27, was shot to death after he informed on one of Chicago’s deadliest gangs, the Hobos.
Two reputed leaders of the gang, Gregory “Bowlegs” Chester and Lance “Double” Dillard, were charged in a federal racketeering case in April 2013.
Although an FBI agent’s affidavit didn’t name Daniels as an informant in the case, it detailed how he wore a wire to record Chester’s and Dillard’s alleged criminal activity. A few days later, a Hobo member was recorded on a prison phone saying that Daniels had worn a wire.
On April 14, 2013, Daniels was dead.
Federal prosecutors have accused Hobos member Paris Poe of shooting Daniels as payback for being an informant. But Poe’s attorney Patrick Blegen filed a motion in federal court Wednesday saying the secret about Daniels’ work for the FBI was out as early as 2012 — and anyone who had committed crimes around Daniels had a motive to harm him.
In April 2012, Daniels’ own girlfriend sent a Facebook message to another man saying, “Keith is a b—- and he work for the police,” adding that he wore a wire and was informing on Chester, Blegen wrote.
“Word traveled quickly that Mr. Daniels was cooperating with law enforcement,” Blegen said.
On Aug. 16, 2012, someone threw a brick through the window of Daniels’ home. An attached note had threatened to kill him, according to Blegen’s filing.
“Yo b—- a– got to nerve to still be living on da low end and everybody no [sic] you snitching,” the note said.
And in February 2013, a Hobo member allegedly confronted Daniels with a gun at his Chicago home and the FBI relocated Daniels, his girlfriend and their children to south suburban Dolton, Blegen said.
“It appears it was widely known that Mr. Daniels had been cooperating with law enforcement for years prior to his death,” wrote Blegen, whose motion is asking the government to give up the names of any other people whom Daniels informed on.
Poe, Chester and other Hobos members are scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 6 in a racketeering case accusing the gang of numerous crimes, including the fatal shootings of nine people. Dillard is serving a 10-year prison term on a drug conviction.
