Feb 27, 2009 6:16 pm US/Central
Man Charged In Murder Of 3 Teens Had Prior Charges
Martin Ybarra Acquitted In 2005 Murder Case
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Martin Ybarra was charged with the Feb. 20, 2009 shooting deaths of three Chicago teenagers.
A 20-year-old Chicago man has been formally charged with killing three teenagers. But it wasn't his first court appearance.
Martin Ybarra has been charged with murder before.
A criminal court judge denied bond for Ybarra, charged with using an assault rifle to kill the three boys in an after-school attack.
But the family of another victim, killed back in 2005, says Ybarra should have been behind bars, not on the street.
South Chicago is a neighborhood that's struggled with gang violence so long, history can seem to repeat itself.
"We remember when we got the call," said Laura Pacheco. "We got the call my brother had been shot and we didn't believe it.
Four years ago, Pacheco's brother, 19-year-old Danny Urbeita, was shot in the back and killed at 87th and Exchange – the same intersection where the three teens were gunned down last Friday.
What's more, Ybarra, the same alleged gang member who prosecutors said killed Urbeita, is now charged in the triple homicide
Prosecutor Thomas Darman told the court Ybarra retrieved an assault rifle from his home and mowed down the teenagers as a part of a Southeast Side gang war.
"Several witnesses both on the 8700 block of South Exchange as well as on 87th Street indicate they saw Ybarra firing this weapon," Assistant State's Attorney Thomas Darman said.
But Ybarra's public defender argued the only witnesses who identified him as the shooter are rival gang members. She said they can't be trusted.
Ironically, that's the same argument that led a criminal court jury to acquit Ybarra in Urbeita's murder.
Now, as Urbeita's mother tearfully reviews the photo album of his life, the family hopes courtroom history won't repeat itself as well.
"If they didn't let him go, this never would have happened," Pacheco said.
Police recovered the assault rifle, and say shell casings from the shooting scene match that rifle.
But Ybarra's acquittal in the Urbeita murder shows what prosecutors are up against when gang members are their strongest witnesses.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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