Insane deuces trial

Another bullet struck her neighbor Jose Hurtado, 21, who suffered serious injuries. He was standing nearby with several family members eating ice cream, authorities said. After hearing a graphic description of the violence Wednesday during opening arguments by Assistant State's Atty.

Craig Chval, Ureste lowered his head beside his attorey and started shaking. Judge Ronald Mehling granted the request, and Ureste's mother, Christina Romero, pulled up a chair and rubbed her son's back and hair as he wept. Prosecutors Chval and David Bayer presented a case against Ureste that describes him as a hardened gang member intent on killing his rivals rather than the dependent child he seemed in court.

Ureste, a member of the Insane Deuces gang, and several of his fellow gang members saw a group of Latin Kings walking across the street on Green Oaks Court, Chval said. Ureste opened fire on a rival who Ureste thought was showing disrespect by walking on the Insane Deuces' turf, Chval said. And that's what Javier Ureste gave them.

Chval argued that there is solid evidence that Ureste is guilty. Bullets removed from the bodies of the two bystanders were traced to the gun that Ureste admitted he used, Chval said. A witness testified Wednesday that Ureste's gang and the Latin Kings were involved in a feud in Addison and that Ureste was seen flashing gang signals at enemies weeks before the shooting. Tensions between the gangs were so high that if a rival were seen wearing a baseball cap with the brim pointed the wrong way, he would be beaten with baseball bats, said witness David Vega, Gang members who refused to attack rivals would be beaten by their own gang members for cowardice, said Vega, a former member of the Addison branch of the Latin Kings.

During the defense's opening arguments, Dornblaser did not dispute that his client was a gang member or that he fired the gun when he saw the rival gang members walking across the street. But Dornblaser argued that Ureste was only trying to fire into the air to frighten his rivals away.

Ureste did not intend to hurt his enemies or the two bystanders, Dornblaser said. A jury convicted six reputed Aurora street gang members Monday on charges they helped run a murderous criminal enterprise responsible for a spate of killings in Following a two-month trial in federal court in Chicago, jurors convicted the six of racketeering conspiracy but were unable to reach a verdict on a seventh defendant.

Two of the reputed Insane Deuces gang members also were found guilty of murder. Christian Guzman also was convicted of killing Lazcano. Jurors now must decide whether, as part of the broader criminal conspiracy, each of the six are responsible for the four murders, which includes the slaying of Robert Perez.

If so, their sentences for racketeering conspiracy would increase to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Those deliberations are scheduled to continue Tuesday. Prosecutors built their case with help from an Insane Deuces enforcer-turned-informant who secretly spied on the gang for three years after he was arrested in on a drug charge, prosecutors have said.