10-year-old girl's death haunts family, court told at sentencing - WGN ...

A gang member convicted of participating in a hunt for rivals that ended with a 10-year-old girl fatally shot in 2008 was sentenced today to 60 years in prison.

Antoine Lacy, 29, was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the slaying of Nequiel Fowler, affectionately known as Nee-Nee, who was walking with her blind younger sister near their South Side home when she was caught in the gang crossfire.
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Three others also have been convicted for their roles in the crime.

During a sentencing hearing today, the girl?s grandmother, Linda Fleming, told Judge Kenneth Wadas that Nequiel?s sister Valerie is still struggling more than three years after the murder.
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?Valerie talks about Nequiel all the time, especially late at night because she can?t sleep,? Fleming said in her statement.
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Fleming said that when she recently told Valerie, now 9, that she was going to court, the little girl replied: ??Why are you going back to court? Nee-Nee is dead and it is not going to bring her back.??

Nequiel?s mother, Linda Williams, said her daughter was excited to be entering the 4th grade and was the ?happiest girl on the block,? enjoying the Labor Day holiday with everyone else, on the day she was shot.

?She did not know that this would be her last day of living, the last day to see her mom, sister, brother and her family,? Williams said, recalling how she ran down the stairs to find Nequiel on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest and Valerie clutching a fence, screaming for her sister to get up.

?Nequiel was shaking and gasping for her breath ... (she) was dying right in front of me,? her mother said.

Prosecutors said that Lacy and co-defendants Joseph Chico and Luis Pena were all members of the Latin Dragons and met up with a fourth defendant, Raymond Jones, at East 87th Street and South Exchange to shoot Latin Kings members.
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Chico, who cut a deal with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence, testified at trial that he and Lacy were nearby when they heard about six gunshots and then fled the scene with Pena, who was accused of firing the fatal shot.

Pena and Jones were each convicted of first-degree murder in Nequiel?s death and are awaiting sentencing.
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Chico pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced last month to 14 years in prison.

jmeisner@tribune.com

Source: http://www.wgnradio.com/news/local/breaking/chi-10yearold-girls-death-haunts-family-court-told-at-sentencing-20120216,0,3322313.story?track=rss

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