Two witnesses in a pending Cook County murder case were targeted in a murder-for-hire plot, federal officials disclosed this week.
Christopher Yates, 39, was charged Thursday with murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder for hire, according to federal court records. Yates was arrested this week and made his initial court appearance in U.S. District Court on Thursday.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 15.
The charges against Yates stem from a Sept. 13, 2020, shooting in the 200 block of North Pulaski Road that left a woman dead and man severely injured, records show.
Brandon Wilson, now 39, was arrested and charged in the shooting about six weeks later. Wilson faces murder and aggravated battery charges and he remains in Cook County Jail as the case proceeds.
Federal authorities now allege that Yates, a cousin of Wilson’s, tried to recruit another person to kill two witnesses to the shooting — the surviving victim and Wilson’s girlfriend.
“I want them both off the board,” Yates allegedly said last month while under audio surveillance. “Both of them got to (expletive) go.”
Authorities allege Yates told the phony assassin that the death of Wilson’s girlfriend needed to look like a botched robbery attempt, while the murder of the surviving victim could be attributed to random street violence.
“I know I can (knock) him as a lost casualty and make it look like it was some street shit, you know what I’m saying?” Yates is alleged to have told a federal cooperator last month. “So we gettin’ them both.”
A lawyer for Yates did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
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