Judge’s shooter came to victim’s home days before: prosecutors

The alleged gunman who is accused of shooting Raymond Myles to death went to the Cook County judge’s South Side home days before the murder, intending to attempt to rob the judge’s girlfriend as she headed out for a pre-dawn trip to the gym, prosecutors said Friday.

Earl Wilson backed out of that attempt, but returned four days later and shot the woman, then gunned down Myles, outside the judge’s West Chesterfield home. Wilson, 45, was arrested this week and Friday was ordered held without bail on charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

The botched robbery was weeks in the making, Assistant State’s Attorney Guy Lisuzza said. Wilson had an unnamed friend to observe the Myles’ house in late March, telling the friend he was “hurting for money and was going to rob a woman because she has a lot of money,” Lisuzza said.

The pair made the aborted attempt at a holdup in the early morning hours of April 6, and surveillance video shows Wilson’s truck a block from Myles home around 4:30 a.m. Leaving his would-be accomplice in the truck, Wilson walked toward Myles’ house with a gun in his hand, but returned soon after, saying it was not a “good time” to go through with the robbery.

Wilson returned before dawn on April 10 with Joshua Smith, a self-employed auto mechanic who was arrested and charged in connection with the murder earlier this month. Lisuzza said the pair were aware of Myles’ 52-year-old girlfriend’s habit of heading to gym in the early morning. After backing out of the robbery attempt days earlier, cell phone records showed Wilson called Smith from near Myles’ house. Lisuzza said Wilson told Smith he had called off the stickup, and “we gotta do this a different time.”

Surveillance video showed Smith driving with Wilson the morning of April 10, with Smith parking his car in an alley while Wilson skulks out toward Myles house, holding a gun. Wilson waited for the woman as she walked from the house to the garage, then scuffled with her as he tried to take her gym bag, shooting her in the leg.

The commotion drew the 66-year-old Myles out of the house, and when he confronted Wilson, Wilson shot the judge four times before running back to meet Smith in the getaway car. Myles was pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Medical Center. His 52-year-old girlfriend was expected to recover from her injuries.

Prosecutors did not say why Wilson, 45, believed Myles’ female friend would have money. But they said Wilson grew angry when he found no cash in her gym bag, and tossed the bag out of the car into a trash can.

The night before the robbery, prosecutors said Wilson texted Smith: “green light for 4 a.m.” The robbery took place shortly before 5 a.m. Cell phone records also show the two men were in the vicinity of Myles house the night of the robbery.

Police sources have said they are examining connections between Smith and Wilson and the female victim’s ex-husband. Myles’ girlfriend filed for divorce from her husband in 2015, court records show. The relationship between Smith and the ex-husband was not known.

At a press conference announcing Wilson’s arrest Thursday, police declined to say if Wilson had connections Myles’ girlfriend, or how Wilson and Smith know each other.

DuPage County Judge George Bakalis presided over the hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse because of conflicts with other judges in the building hearing a case involving the murder of a colleague.

Smith, 37, who was also ordered held without bail on a charge of first-degree murder, also briefly appeared in court Friday.

Bakalis denied a motion by Assistant Public Defender Kristina Yi to appoint a new attorney for Smith, citing personal relationships that might have existed between some staff in her office and Myles.

Prosecutors said Wilson was convicted of attempted murder in 1992 and served 12 years of an 18-year prison sentence.

In the years since his release from prison, Wilson has also been arrested for car theft, domestic battery and gun possession.

Lisuzza said police officers who saw the video and knew Wilson said they recognized the “distinctive jeans” Wilson was wearing, though Lisuzza did not say how the officers knew Wilson. Wilson was led into court Friday wearing a black, collared shirt and heavily embroidered jeans, which did not appear to match the faded, but still fashionable pair worn by the alleged gunman in surveillance video.

Myles was well-liked by his peers and staff at the courthouse at 26th Street and South California Avenue, where he had presided over a “youthful offender” docket of younger defendants who were facing minor charges, and often, substance abuse problems.