3 Four Corner Hustlers ask for trial delay as prosecutors consider death penalty

Attorneys representing three men identified as members of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang are asking a federal judge to delay their scheduled Sept. 3 trial to give them more time to prepare their defenses, possibly against the death penalty.

A motion to delay the trial was submitted Tuesday by the lawyers for reputed gang boss Labar “Bro Man” Spann, Tremayne Thompson and Juhwun Foster — three of the 11 defendants indicted in a sweeping racketeering conspiracy case in 2017. Federal prosecutors have linked the men to the commission of six murders between 2000 and 2003.

The effort to delay the trial comes as the U.S. attorney’s office continues to weigh whether to seek the death penalty against the three.

Before prosecutors make that decision, the lawyers for the three men have until March 1 to submit so-called “mitigation” findings.

“None of the three defendants will be ready with written submissions for the U.S. attorney by March 1, 2019,” the motion says.

Several of the eight other defendants have filed motions in recent months asking the judge to separate the death penalty-eligible defendants from those who aren’t. U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin has yet to rule on that.

The defendants are accused of involvement in a wide-ranging conspiracy dating to the mid-1990s that included the commission of six killings between 2000 and 2003, among them the shooting of Latin Kings boss Rudy “Kato” Rangel.

According to federal authorities, from the mid-1990s until the September 2017 indictment, the Four Corner Hustlers operated in West Garfield Park and Humboldt Park on the West Side and in the former LeClaire Courts public housing development on the Southwest Side, dealing drugs, robbing rivals and using violence and intimidation to keep victims and witnesses from cooperating with law enforcement.

The federal government hasn’t executed someone related to crimes committed in Illinois since 1938. Ronald Mikos, a former Chicago podiatrist who was sentenced to death after being convicted in 2005 in the murder of a patient who was to testify against him, remains on death row at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

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• Killing ‘Kato’: the story of Latin Kings boss Rudy Rangel Jr.’s murder