Three charged in brutal double murder targeting man thought to be an informant

Darius Murphy allegedly told a wired-up fellow inmate at the Cook County Jail last fall that he wouldn’t have known Donald Holmes Jr. “from a can of paint.”

“So it ain’t my fault I killed him,” he said, according to prosecutors.

All that really mattered, apparently, was that Holmes had flipped. Or so Murphy had been told. He allegedly said: “Listen! It like if you call me and say, ‘Kill this n-----. He snitching on me.’ I don’t know dude. I’m gonna take your word. … I’m gonna kill him!”

Now “Scudder” Murphy has been charged in federal court along with Deshawn “Tiny” Morgan and Demond “Looney” Brown in a cold-blooded murder-for-hire case that ended with the deaths of Holmes and Diane Taylor on Jan. 31, 2018, in the 4700 block of Arthington Street.

Morgan hired Brown and Murphy to kill Holmes and Taylor for $5,000 and an assault rifle, according to a criminal complaint made public Thursday. The next day, the feds say Brown and Murphy used some of the money Morgan paid them to buy a car.

ATF

But months later, Murphy found himself in the Cook County Jail explaining the circumstances of the murder to a fellow member of his gang, the Wicked Town Traveling Vice Lords. The gang member happened to be Holmes’ friend, though. And he wore a wire while Murphy allegedly described the murder in brutal detail.

Holmes had not been working with law enforcement at the time of his death, according to the complaint. But he had helped them in the past. For example, he helped nab a member of the Black P Stones by wearing a wire in 2011, records show.

Morgan began to suspect Holmes around Nov. 30, 2017. That’s when authorities stopped and searched Morgan’s car after Morgan made arrangements to pick up a gun at Holmes’ residence, according to the complaint. Though someone then offered to shoot Holmes for Morgan with a rifle at a distance, Morgan instead allegedly said that person should meet Holmes to buy some heroin, “blow (Holmes’) brains out and drive away.”

But Morgan eventually turned to Brown and Murphy. And later, while speaking to the fellow inmate at the jail, Murphy claimed to be the person who pulled the trigger.

Murphy allegedly explained how, on Jan. 31, 2018, Taylor had pulled Holmes’ 2017 Jeep Cherokee in front of Murphy’s home on Arthington around 11:13 p.m.

“(Holmes) try to hand me something through the window,” Murphy allegedly said. “I say, ‘naw, man.’ I get in the back seat. Shoot that b---- in the back of his sh--. Pow Pow!”

“His b---- tried to bail out,” Murphy allegedly said. “I grabbed her by the back of her wig. I said, ‘Where you going’ Pow Pow! I hit her in her sh-- two times. Then I turn, hit him in his sh-- two more times. Pow Pow!”

Then, Murphy said, “I’m out this b----.”

Holmes died from four gunshot wounds to the back of his head, according to the complaint. Taylor died from two.

Meanwhile, not even 12 hours after the murder, the feds say Brown had begun searching Craigslist on his phone for cars for sale.