CHICAGO– A federal jury has convicted six alleged gang members in the 2020 fatal shooting of Chicago rapper FBG Duck, a killing that prosecutors say was part of long-standing violence in gang areas on the city’s South Side.
Jurors deliberated for about 16 hours over three days before announcing their verdict on Wednesday, convicting the six suspects of murder with the aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder.
FBG Duck, real name Carlton Weekly, was shot sixteen times outside the luxury clothing store Dolce & Gabbana in Chicago’s upscale Gold Coast neighborhood on August 4, 2020. The 26-year-old’s girlfriend and another man were injured in the attack.
The jury convicted Charles Liggins, 32; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Christopher Thomas, 24; Marcus Smart, 25; Tacarlos offered, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34, for murder in aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder. Liggins, Roberson, Thomas, Smart and Offerd were also convicted of using a firearm in Weekly’s murder.
A life sentence is mandatory for a conviction for murder in aid of racketeering. Sentencing hearings for all six are scheduled for August and September.
Prosecutors said Weekly was killed as part of a yearslong gang conflict between factions of the Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples on Chicago’s South Side. The six defendants were allegedly members or associates of O-Block, a rival faction of Black Disciples, prosecutors said.
Morris Pasqual, the acting U.S. attorney in Chicago, said his office will continue to work with law enforcement “to prioritize combating the unacceptable level of gang violence in Chicago.”
“The jury’s verdicts today hold the six defendants responsible for a brutal murder that took the life of Carlton Weekly,” Pasqual said in a statement.
Weekly’s mother, LaSheena Weekly, wept Wednesday as she listened to the jury’s verdicts in a crowded courtroom at a federal courthouse in Chicago.
“When I go home and tell my grandchildren that justice has been served for their father(s), it will be a great burden off my shoulders,” she told reporters after the verdicts were announced. “I just want to thank the United States government for the very good job they have done to ensure that these boys will never hurt another mother and child again.”