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Endia Martin Murder Leads to Charges for Two More People

By Erin Meyer | May 1, 2014 11:26am | Updated on May 1, 2014 3:49pm
 Vandetta Redwood and Robert James are charged in connection to the murder of 14-year-old Endia Martin, authorities said.
Vandetta Redwood and Robert James are charged in connection to the murder of 14-year-old Endia Martin, authorities said.
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Chicago Police Department

CHICAGO — The number of people accused of having a hand in the shooting death of one 14-year-old girl by another 14-year-old girl on Monday afternoon continues to grow.

In addition to the 14-year-old girl charged with shooting and killing Endia Martin over a boy, police have charged an uncle with supplying the teen with the gun  and a 17-year-old who helped the shooter hide the murder weapon, according to authorities.

In the latest round of charges, police said two people lied to police during the investigation.

On Monday afternoon, a 14-year-old girl — whose name is being held because she's a minor — fatally shot high school freshman Endia Martin, also 14, authorities said. The two had been involved in a fight over a boy, police and family said.

Uncle Donnell Flora, 25, of the 8300 block of South Buffalo Avenue, took the bus with a loaded gun to give to his niece "knowing she was going to become involved in a physical fight with the victim," Jamie Santini, an assistant state's attorney, said Wednesday when Flora appeared in court.

Flora is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.

The 14-year-old suspect was arrested shortly after the shooting and charged Tuesday with first-degree murder.

"She admitted to shooting the victims and named the defendant, her uncle, as the person who provided her the loaded gun after she requested him to do so telling him she was going to be involved in a fight," Santini said.

Later in the day, a 17-year-old boy was charged similarly as a juvenile. Police and prosecutors said he helped the shooter hide the murder weapon, a Smith and Wesson .38 special revolver.

The gun, which police initially reported as stolen, led to charges Wednesday against a man who wasn't involved in the murder and claims that he knew nether the victim nor her alleged killer.

Robert James, 34, was charged in connection to Endia's murder for illegally selling his firearm and then making a false report that it had been stolen in November.

James bought the revolver from Chuck's Gun Shop in Riverdale, according to court records. He sold it to another man in November. Then, somehow, the gun ended up in the hands of Flora, the 14-year-old's uncle.

James, who has no apparent criminal record, was ordered held on $100,000 bail.

Vandetta Redwood, an aunt of the teen accused in Endia's murder, was also brought before the judge Thursday.

The 32-year-old woman stands accused of going to the scene of the murder "knowing that her 14-year-old niece and her friends were going to use force and violence against the (two) victims," Santini said.

Redwood, who works at a Downtown McDonalds on West Madison Street, faces felony charges of obstruction of justice for impeding the police investigation in the Endia's murder, police said.  She is also charged with one count of felony mob action for failing to call the police or try to stop the fight that lead to the murder, police said.

In a video that captured the incident, Santini said Redwood was standing next to the 14-year-old shooter with two other girls nearby — one armed with a bottle and one armed with a pipe.

When police questioned Redwood about it, she lied and said she wasn't there, Santini said.

Cook County Maria Kuriakos Ciesil questioned whether the allegations and evidence against Redwood constituted probable cause for her arrest.

"So, she's being charged because she was at the scene and is related to the shooter?" the judge asked, repeatedly asking prosecutors for more. "What is it that she has done?"

After a lengthy debate, Kuriakos Ciesil set Redwood's bail at $25,000.