COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Believing police got it wrong, a Chicago Public Schools teaching assistant allegedly tried to persuade a 14-year-old relative to confess to a murder with which another teen relative was charged.
The teacher's assistant at Fiske Elementary School — Capricio Wilson, 31, of the 7100 block of South Oakley Avenue — is now accused of getting in the way of a murder investigation after he allegedly told police his 14-year-old relative committed the crime and tried to get the teen to confess, prosecutors said.
Wilson, who works with special needs students at the Woodlawn neighborhood school, is charged with obstruction of justice and destroying evidence in what authorities described as a plot to interfere with the prosecution of the other teen, also a relative of Wilson, charged in the slaying of 16-year-old Geanni Boyd.
Wilson maintains he has been falsely accused, but on his attorney's advice, declined to discuss details of the case. Chicago Public Schools officials refused to comment; neither did Chicago Police, citing the ongoing investigation.
Wearing a well-pressed gray suit and a white button-down shirt in bond court, Wilson said nothing as prosecutors accused him of contacting the 14-year-old relative and telling him to confess to Geanni's Sept. 4 murder.
The 14-year-old relative was not identified by prosecutors. Wilson's 16-year-old cousin, Deven Skipper, 16, is charged with Geanni's murder. Prosecutors said Deven pulled a gun as he rode by on a bicycle and shot Geanni to death.
"I love them both," Wilson said of his two relatives. "I was trying to do the right thing; I was trying to tell the truth."
His 14-year-old relative is in juvenile detention on a gun charge. It's not clear whether the charges against him are related to the pending murder case. But according to prosecutors, Wilson told police that the younger boy was the one who pulled the trigger.
Wilson allegedly tried to get the 14-year-old to confess to Geanni's murder just as police were honing in on Deven as the shooter, according to court documents filed in the case.
Deven, a Washington Park resident, is being held without bail for allegedly killing Geanni and wounding a 15-year-old in what prosecutors described as a retaliation shooting.
On Sept. 2, Deven, of the 5800 block of South Calumet Avenue, and a friend got into a fight with two brothers who live in the 5100 block of South Calumet Avenue, Assistant State's Attorney Heather Kent said at Deven's bond hearing.
Two days after the fight, one of the brothers was standing on the front porch of his home with Geanni when Deven rolled by on his bicycle and opened fire, Kent said.
Two shots hit Geanni, killing him. Another grazed the teen next to him.
Deven was identified in a photo lineup by witnesses and was arrested by the gang investigation division, authorities said.
The same day Deven appeared in court, Wilson allegedly gave police false information in an effort to derail the case against his cousin, according to police reports. He allegedly told police that his 14-year-old relative admitted that he killed Geanni.
A public defender representing Wilson said he is a student at DePaul University and an employee of the Chicago Board of Education. A CPS employee manifesto from 2012 said Wilson was a special education classroom assistant.
