Articles
April 6, 2005
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter
Twelve-year-old Miguel DeLaRosa died because he got caught in the middle of
a dispute ignited by one gang member eyeing a rival's car the wrong way, Cook
County prosecutors said in court Tuesday.
The man on trial for Miguel's murder is Miguel Figueroa, a 32-year-old Cobra gang member. As DeLaRosa rode his bicycle on a sunny afternoon five years ago on the Northwest Side, Figueroa popped up through the sunroof of a beige Pontiac and started shooting at a vanload of rival Latin Kings, prosecutors say.
Claims of self-defense
Miguel took a stray bullet in the chest, as the boy's 11-year-old brother looked on, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Veryl Gambino told the jury in her opening statement.
Defense attorney Crystal Gray didn't dispute Figueroa shot Miguel, but Gray told the jury her client fired at the Latin Kings because he feared for his life.
"When he first saw [the Latin Kings], Miguel Figueroa did not shoot, but this van kept coming, it pursued the [Cobras] for over a mile," Gray said.
Fight was with Latin Kings
Prosecutors described a different scenario -- with nothing to do with self-defense. That story emerged after Figueroa's buddies began to "crumble" and betrayed him during the police investigation into the killing, Gambino said.
Figueroa ran into a Latin King nicknamed "Choco" on the Northwest Side in front of Choco's car, prosecutors said. The men argued and "Choco'' apparently didn't like the way Figueroa looked at his car. Figueroa and his fellow gang-bangers armed themselves -- "getting strapped" -- got in a car and began looking for the Latin Kings, Gambino said.
After the shooting, Figueroa initially denied any involvement but later confessed on videotape after investigators tracked down the owner of the beige Pontiac.
Later Tuesday, the dead boy's brother testified.
"When he got up, he was holding his chest, screaming, 'I got shot!' " Angel Lopez, 16, testified. "Then he went down to the floor again and never got up."
Figueroa, of the 1900 block of North Karlov, was convicted of battery in 1990 and sentenced to a year of supervision.
The trial continues today.