SENTENCED FOR FAT ALLY SHOOTING FRIEND
A West Side man who accidentally fatally shot his friend in the head last year in their North Lawndale home has been released on probation after more than a year at Cook County Jail.
James Gonnigan, 27, pleaded guilty to one felony count of involuntary manslaughter on July 15 before Judge Timothy Joseph Joyce, according to Cook County court records.
On Jan. 4, 2015, Gonnigan and 20- year- old Marsalis Holman were playing in the kitchen of their home in the 1300 block of South Kolin Avenue, authorities said.
Others in the house reported hearing Gonnigan and Holman talking and laughing before a single shot rang out, authorities said.
Gonnigan told his girlfriend and her acquaintance that he’d shot Holman, authorities said, and someone called 911.
Police found Gonnigan in the living room with five .38- caliber bullets. He told investigators he pointed the gun at Holman’s head and accidentally shot him.
Joyce sentenced Gonnigan to six months in the County Jail on Monday, but Gonnigan was released after receiving credit for more than 600 days in jail, where he has been held since his arrest.
Jordan Owen
Changes at Wilson Red Line station as project marks halfway point
The CTA announced changes to the Wilson Red Line station this week, marking the halfway point of the ongoing renovation project at the Uptown transit hub.
Trains in both directions will now use the new west island platform, which is longer and wider than the previous platform and offers more shelter from the weather, according to the CTA.
Customers can access the new platform from the two temporary entrances on Wilson— the main entrance on the south side of the street, or the auxiliary entrance on the north side of the street, which is not staffed and requires a farecard for entry— while construction continues, according to the CTA.
The Gerber entrance, and the auxiliary entrance and exit south of Wilson, will close permanently, along with the old northbound platform.
The changes are part of the $ 203 million Wilson Station Reconstruction Project, announced in 2012 and now more than halfway done, according to the CTA.
The project is expected to be completed in late 2017.
Jordan Owen
5 hurt in Kennedy crash
Five people were seriously injured in a crash during the Tuesday morning commute on the Kennedy Expy. on the North Side.
The three- vehicle crash happened at 7: 39 a. m. in the outbound lanes of I- 90 near Armitage Avenue, according to Illinois State Police. Alcohol may have been a factor in the crash, according to State Police.
All outbound lanes were closed for about an hour after the crash.
Jordan Owen
Man found dead in field
Aman was found dead in a grassy field Monday afternoon in north suburban Niles.
Someone in a parking lot spotted the body behind a business in the 8500 block of Golf Road just before 4 p. m. and called 911, according to Niles police.
Jayson Silver, 43, of Blue Island was pronounced dead at the scene at 4: 13 p. m., police said. There was no trauma to his body, and numerous cans of compressed air were found at the scene, police said.
An autopsy did not rule on cause and manner of death pending further investigation.
Jordan Owen
Tobacco shop operator charged with tax fraud
The operator of a southwest suburban tobacco store has been charged with defrauding the state of Illinois out of more than $ 400,000 in sales taxes.
Mazen M. Nassar, 38, is charged with felony counts of sales tax evasion of over $ 100,000, money laundering of over $ 10,000, wire fraud and filing a fraudulent sales tax return, according to Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.
Nassar is accused of underreporting more than $ 5.8 million in sales between January 2011 and February 2014 from Smokers Expo, 12330W. 143rd St. in Homer Glen, prosecutors said. His underreporting allegedly defrauded the state out of more than $ 465,000.
Nassar, of Orland Park, was convicted in 2012 of conspiring to purchase contraband cigarettes without tax stamps on them, the attorney general’s office said. He was sentenced to a year in prison.
Nassar was ordered held on a $ 550,000 bond.
Luke Wilusz