Guilty verdict for trio in Demario Bailey murder

In quick succession Wednesday, two sets of jurors returned guilty verdicts on all counts against three men charged in the 2014 murder of teen Demario Bailey.

After less than two hours of deliberations, Cook County jurors Wednesday returned a guilty verdict on all counts against Tarik Brakes, gunman in a botched robbery of 15-year-old Bailey in 2014. A second jury, which was seated to hear evidence just against Brakes’ two co-defendants, needed little more than an hour to return guilty verdicts against his brother, Deafro Brakes and Carlos Johnson.

Tarik Brakes sat impassive beside his attorney as the clerk read off the string of guilty verdicts for first-degree murder, and for attempted robbery of Demario and his twin brother, Demacio, and for the robberies of two men under the same Englewood viaduct just minutes before the fatal shooting. His brother and Johnson, whose verdict was delivered about three hours later, showed little emotion.

Seated in the courtroom gallery, Demario’s mother, Delores Bailey sobbed, her shoulders heaving as she listened to the verdicts. “It’s been almost a full four years,” she said, pausing to collect herself. “… that I been asking God to prevail for my son, because he didn’t deserve to die under that viaduct, and today (God) did it for me. My world had stopped, even though it looked like I was still living, but I got peace today.”

Two sets of jurors were seated for the three-day trial, one for Brakes and another for his brother Deafro Brakes and Johnson. All three were found guilty of first-degree murder, while Tarik Brakes and Johnson also were found guilty of robbing two men prior to their encounter with the Baileys, and for attempted robbery of the brothers. Johnson was found guilty of the attempted robbery of Demario Bailey.

Prosecutors said the Brakes brothers, Johnson and a fourth co-defendant, Isiah Penn, had set out to hold up pedestrians as they walked under a viaduct at 63rd and State streets. The four had held up two men in separate robberies just minutes apart, then encountered the Bailey twins as they walked to basketball practice, Assistant State’s Attorney Kimellen Chamberlain told jurors as she held up a portrait photo of the bespectacled Demario, beside a photograph of the teen’s face as he lay dead on the sidewalk beneath the viaduct.

“(Demario) became number 2014-1882, a statistic in Chicago,” said Chamberlain, referring to the case number assigned by the Medical Examiner’s Office. “Because that group was going to make money.”

Demario struggled with one of his attackers, then punched the assailant holding Demacio. Then Tarik Brakes pulled a gun and fired a single shot, striking Demario in the chest. Penn testified that he acted as a lookout during the robbery.

Demario, testifying in the first days of the trial, said he pulled off his jacket to staunch the bleeding while waiting for an ambulance, then watched as emergency crews tried unsuccessfully to revive his brother.

No physical evidence, including the murder weapon, was ever found, with prosecutors relying heavily on two eyewitnesses to prove their case: Demacio Bailey and Isiah Penn, who testified against his three co-defendants as part of a plea deal that will see him released as soon as 2024. Surveillance cameras throughout Englewood showed the Brakes, Johnson and Penn walking around the neighborhood shortly before the shooting, and bolting from underneath the underpass after the shooting.