COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — On the day Demario Bailey would have turned 16 along with his twin brother, three other teens appeared in court on charges they killed him.
Isiah Penn, 17, Tarik Brakes, 16, and Deafro Brakes, 17, were all charged as adults with first-degree murder and armed robbery with a firearm.
The Brakes brothers were ordered held without bail Tuesday by Judge James Brown. Penn was ordered held in lieu of $2 million bail.
A fourth suspect, Carlos Johnson, 17, appeared in court on the same charges Monday. Brown ordered him held without bail.
After Tuesday's court hearing, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez called the crime "cold-blooded and heinous."
"The facts of this case are almost too disturbing to comprehend. We have this promising young man with a twin brother who never left his side ... struck down in his own community, on his way to a basketball practice," Alvarez said.
"Today, Demario Bailey and his brother should've been celebrating their 16th birthday. Instead, their mother is planning their funeral."
The group of thieves who shot and killed Demario blocks from his high school had robbed two other people under a viaduct just minutes before, prosecutors said in court Monday.
According to Assistant State's Attorney Jamie Santini, the group hatched a plan on Friday to commit armed robberies, and then committed three under an Englewood viaduct within a six-minute span Saturday.
The first attack happened about 12:30 p.m. when the group robbed a 17-year-old of his cellphone as he walked under a lengthy viaduct in the first block of West 63rd Street, Santini said.
Minutes later, the group robbed a 33-year-old man of his cellphone, earrings and $30. When the group demanded the man's cellphone passcode, he complied and ran off.
About 12:36 p.m., the thieves approached Demario and his twin brother as they walked to basketball practice at Johnson College Prep.
The robbers rifled through Demario's pockets before a struggle broke out, and one of the thieves shot Demario in his chest, Santini said. The group ran off, but were caught on CTA surveillance video as they did.
Demario's brother ran in the opposite direction, and when he realized his brother wasn't with him, ran back to find him motionless on the ground, Santini said. Demario was pronounced dead on the scene. He would've turned 16 Tuesday.
Santini did not say who fired the shot that killed Demario, but said Penn was seen with a gun shortly after Demario was killed. He is on juvenile parole for a May robbery, prosecutors said.
"It's unclear right now who the actual shooter was, but by virtue of the law of accountability, they're all accountable for each other's actions," Alvarez said. "This was a group effort."
She called on members of the community to get more involved in the lives of young people "so they have things to do, so they're not on the street."
Demario "and his brother are good kids. And they're going to a basketball game. They didn't wake up and grab a gun and decide to go rob people. They're doing what a teenager should be doing."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
