COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A self-admitted gang member paralyzed by gunfire said in court Thursday that five witnesses who named him as the killer in a 2009 drive-by shooting are mistaken.
Left without the use of his legs in 2000 and confined to a wheelchair when a rival shot him five times in the chest, Andrew Ruiz testified Thursday about the night in question and his life with the Maniac Latin Disciples street gang.
"(I did it) to make money by selling drugs," said the 33-year-old man, clenching his left leg close to his body. "I stopped (gang banging) after I got shot; they stopped coming around."
Ruiz is on trial this week for the 2009 Halloween slaying of Manny Roman, a young Logan Square father and family man who loved to dance. Jurors are now deliberating his fate.
Manny Roman, 23, was out with a relative shortly after midnight when Ruiz pulled up alongside their car at the intersection of Grand and Central Park avenues and, without provocation, started shooting, prosecutors alleged.
Ruiz was using sticks to control the gas and brake pedals of his car when he killed Roman man in a drive-by because "it was Halloween and somebody was going to die," prosecutors said.
"Don't let this attempt at sympathy fool you," Assistant State's Attorney Toni Giancola warned jurors during closing statements. "He is a cold-blooded killer."
Ruiz said he joined the Maniac Latin Disciples at the age of 11, laying out West Side turf boundaries that fuel rivalries between the Spanish Cobras, Latin Kings, Imperial Gangsters and Four Corner Hustlers.
He said members of his family, including his brother Robert Ruiz, were also in the gang. His mother and father were addicted to drugs.
Ruiz claimed to be a family party the night of the murder, and denied knowing the three girls who testified that they were in the car with him when he allegedly said "It’s Halloween night; somebody is going to die."
Ruiz said his days with the gang came to an end when he lost the use of his legs, suggesting the gang had no more use for him.
"They stopped coming around," he said.
But prosecutors cast doubt on his claims of leaving the gang, pointing to a 2006 drug conviction, for which Ruiz and his mother were both sent to prison.
Prosecutors did not mention another murder case pending against Ruiz, who is also accused in the unrelated murder of another man on the Eisenhower Expressway in 2010.
