In a legal proceeding that has captured the city's simmering gang rivalries, prosecutors laid out their final arguments Friday in the trial of six alleged gang members accused of the broad-daylight murder of drill rapper FBG Duck, according to reports from the Chicago Tribune. FBG Duck, whose real name is Carlton Weekly, was shot 16 times in August 2020 while shopping for his son on Oak Street, a high-end shopping area in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.
"They didn’t all pull the trigger, but when they learned where Carlton Weekly was that day, they all sprung into action to make sure Carlton Weekly never left Oak Street alive," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Marie Ursini said during the closing arguments, the Chicago Tribune reported. The Tribune details how security footage and police surveillance cameras tracked the defendants from the Parkway Gardens apartment complex, home ground of the "O-Block" gang, to the site of the shooting.
The defendants, allegedly associated with O-Block, a faction of the Black Disciples, face life in prison if convicted of murder in furtherance of racketeering. Charles Liggins, Kenneth Roberson, Christopher Thomas, Marcus Smart, Tacarlos Offerd, and Ralph Turpin make up the group charged in Weekly's killing, as covered by the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the lead-up to the fatal encounter, Weekly had released a song titled "Dead Bitches," a so-called diss track disparaging several deceased O-Block members, intensifying the ongoing gang feud. The Chicago Sun-Times noted that the O-Block gang is accused of using such deaths, and their publicized retaliation, as a means to bolster their criminal enterprise. Also depicted in the legal drama are high-profile rappers King Von, Lil Durk, and Chief Keef, figures entangled in the narrative that underscores the interplay between the music industry and street gang dynamics.
Doubt on the credibility of key witnesses was a cornerstone of the defense, as some had received financial compensation or leniency in other criminal cases. "Liars don’t become truthful just because they take an oath to tell the truth," Steve Greenberg, attorney for defendant Kenneth Roberson, told the jury, per the Chicago Sun-Times. Closing arguments for the other defendants and the prosecution's rebuttal are slated to continue into the following week.
