Before they listened to what’s expected to be weeks of testimony about gruesome murders on Chicago’s streets, a federal prosecutor warned a jury not to be fooled by the man sitting in a wheelchair in the courtroom, wrapped in a blanket.
Labar “Bro Man” Spann has been paralyzed for decades thanks to a 1999 shooting, so he “might not fit the image of a typical murderer,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Vermylen said.
“But make no mistake,” Vermylen said. “The defendant sitting in front of you is a killer. The defendant and his street gang, the Four Corner Hustlers, terrorized the West Side of Chicago for decades.”
What Spann lacked in mobility, she said, he “made up for in his diabolical scheming.”
That’s how the second federal racketeering conspiracy trial of the reputed onetime leader of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang kicked off Monday morning at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, before prosecutors began calling witnesses.
It’s the long-awaited redo prompted by the revelation that a former prosecutor in the case, Peter Salib, made an “unauthorized” promise to a key witness in the first trial.
That trial ended with Spann’s conviction in 2021, and it left him facing a mandatory life prison sentence at the time. Salib left the U.S. attorney’s office that same year.
Now prosecutors must take Spann to trial all over again. So a new group of jurors listened Monday as Spann’s attorney, Steven Hunter, also pointed to his client’s disability. Hunter told the jury that Spann “lives in a dangerous world” where “you’re either predator, or you’re prey.”
“He has tried to exude menace,” Hunter said. “Tried to claim credit for things that he did not do, so that he appears dangerous.”
Hunter argued that Spann has now been targeted by a group of people who see potential benefits, including reduced prison sentences, in testifying against him.
“You’re gonna pick somebody who’s not a threat to you,” Hunter explained. “The guy in a wheelchair.”
Vermylen told the jury the Four Corner Hustlers “wanted power and status on the streets of Chicago. They wanted people to fear them.” And she said Spann built a reputation “as a formidable leader,” commanding a loyal crew of gang members “eager to do his bidding.”
The prosecutor pointed to four deaths in particular: The killings of Maximillion McDaniel in July 2000; of George King in April 2003; of Willie Woods also in April 2003; and of Latin Kings chief Rudy “Kato” Rangel in June 2003.
The feds say all four murders were committed upon Spann’s direction.
Spann allegedly ordered McDaniel’s murder because McDaniel cooperated with law enforcement against Spann’s father. King’s slaying allegedly resulted from a dispute between Spann and a rival drug dealer. And Woods’ death was allegedly a murder for hire, with Spann delegating the dirty work to two of his loyal footsoldiers.
Finally, prosecutors have said Spann was paid $20,000 to kill Rangel. The high-profile slaying inspired the track “A ‘Yo Kato” by rapper DMX.
Vermylen opened Spann’s trial Monday by telling the jury about Rangel’s death. She told them how it happened in a little barbershop, about five miles west of the Dirksen Courthouse.
And, she said, Spann sat in a car about a block away from the barbershop, “waiting for his shooter to run inside … and kill Rudy Rangel.”
“What Kato didn’t know was that this defendant, Labar Spann, had been meticulously planning Kato’s death,” she said.