COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Angel Cano followed another teen into an alley planning to buy some pot — but wound up dead, prosecutors said.
Cano, 16, had arranged to buy marijuana from 17-year-old Joel Batalla at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 4300 block of South Paulina Avenue, when he agreed to wait in a nearby alley, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Amanda Pillsbury said.
But Batalla, a Latin Saint who goes by the name "Gizmo," knew that his buyer was a rival member of the Satan Disciple street gang, she said.
He left and returned.
Batalla sent someone to the store to buy blunts while another associate struck up a conversation with Cano about the weather, declaring it "a beautiful day to smoke," Pillsbury said.
Batalla interrupted.
"It's a beautiful day to get smoked," he said, as he pulled out a gun and shot Cano once in the torso, Pillsbury said.
Pillsbury said when the teen slumped over, Batalla shot him five more times in the head before fleeing and handing the gun off to another associate.
Batalla, who had gun charges pending in juvenile court at the time of the shooting, was ordered held without bail Thursday by a Cook County judge.
