A 15-year-old boy was convicted of murder Monday in the shooting of a Lockport man who prosecutors said had driven to a Joliet housing project to buy cocaine.
A Will County jury deliberated for nearly seven hours before returning the verdict against Louis Cunningham, who was tried as an adult in the slaying of Robert Noble, 26.
Noble died two months after he was shot Jan. 15 near a housing project on the south side of Joliet.
Cunningham was convicted of murder and two counts of armed robbery after a weeklong trial in the Joliet courtroom of Circuit Judge Edward N. Masters.
Cunningham bowed his head as the verdict was read.
Noble, who was paralyzed by the bullet that lodged in his spine, died of an infection that a doctor testified came as a result of the wound.
Prosecutors John McCabe and David Shiffer told the jury that Noble was shot after he and two friends, Norman Seaborg, 29, and George Thomas, 37, both of Lockport, had gone to the area to buy cocaine.
Thomas admitted that the three were in the area, known for its drug dealing, on a mission to buy narcotics but Seaborg denied it.
The jury was told that the three were beaten and robbed by street gang members and then shot by Cunningham, who admitted the shooting in a taped statement to police soon after the incident.
But from the witness stand, Cunningham repudiated the statement, saying he made it out of fear of retaliation against his family by gang members.
Assistant Public Defender Kathleen Kallan insisted that Noble and his companions, angered over a previous drug purchase that had gone sour, went to the area to seek revenge.
Cunningham told police he fired at Noble because the man tried to run him down with his car.
Cunningham faces a minimum of 20 years in prison. Sentencing was set for July 16.
The verdict in the shooting came just one day after more than 1,000 Joliet residents held a march against gangs through neighborhoods on the city`s east side that are plagued by gang- and drug-related violence. So far this year the violence has claimed more than 50 victims, including seven who were killed.
The march drew politicians, clergymen, children and neighborhood residents who vowed to ”take back the streets” from gang violence.
One of the marchers was 10-year-old Amy Sanchez, who was wounded by a bullet that struck her in the head more than a year ago as she lay on a sofa watching television.
The shot, intended for a gang member, struck the girl after passing through the closed door of her home.
![The Ravinia Festival Association filed a motion to dismiss the complaint by Karen Ettelson, former member of the organization’s Women’s Board, who sued the musical festival nonprofit and it’s Board of Trustees for “defamatory conduct,” along with seven other counts, after the Board of Trustees expunged her from the working board for an alleged conduct violation. The motion from the music non-profit, which hosts an annual music festival of the same name each summer, argues the lawsuit should be dismissed because there is no justified reason for the courts to intervene with Ettelson’s volunteer status, board members are immune from […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Lake-County-News-Sun.jpg?w=620 "The Ravinia Festival Association filed a motion to dismiss the complaint by Karen Ettelson, former member of the organization’s Women’s Board, who sued the musical festival nonprofit and it’s Board of Trustees for “defamatory conduct,” along with seven other counts, after the Board of Trustees expunged her from the working board for an alleged conduct violation. The motion from the music non-profit, which hosts an annual music festival of the same name each summer, argues the lawsuit should be dismissed because there is no justified reason for the courts to intervene with Ettelson’s volunteer status, board members are immune from […]")
