No bail for alleged getaway driver in Jaslyn Adams slaying, high-speed chase and attempted carjacking on Eisenhower Expressway
Prosecutors on Sunday said a combination of social media posts and surveillance video placed an 18-year-old man inside the Audi sedan that brought two gunmen to a West Side McDonald’s where a 7-year-old girl was fatally shot.
The post included a video of Marion Lewis, 18, with the two suspected gunmen two hours before the shooting in the drive-thru line outside the fast-food restaurant in the 3200 block of West Roosevelt Road, authorities said during an audio-only bail hearing broadcast on YouTube.
The post also showed both gunmen holding firearms, one of them an AK-47-style rifle that fired nearly 30 shots into the Infiniti with tinted windows containing Jaslyn Adams and her father, Jontae Adams, prosecutors said.
Both gunmen remained at large, while Lewis, of Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood, faces a first-degree murder charge in Jaslyn’s death April 18.
He also faces several more felonies connected to his arrest on the Eisenhower Expressway on Thursday afternoon. Lewis allegedly evaded undercover police vehicles attempting to box him in, leading to a high-speed chase to the expressway near Hillside, where he was shot while trying to carjack a motorist stopped in traffic.
Authorities also accused Lewis of firing through the window of a Land Rover in an attempt to get the driver and his family out of the vehicle. That’s when an officer confronted Lewis and shot him in the left shoulder. He was treated at an area hospital and released to authorities.
Jaslyn and her father were each wounded around 4:15 p.m. in the drive-thru in the city’s Homan Square neighborhood, police said.
Cameras outside the business showed the gunmen exiting the passenger side doors, one with a handgun and the other with a rifle loaded with an extended magazine, and opening fire on Adams’ parked vehicle, Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin DeBoni told the court.
The shooters entered the getaway car but got back out and fired more shots when the bullet-riddled car tried to move, DeBoni said.
Police recovered 25 rifle shell casings and 17 .40-caliber shell casings at the scene. Jaslyn, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was wounded in the upper back, arm and leg.
After learning that Lewis had previously threatened Jontae Adams on social media, detectives located Lewis’ page with the video of him behind the wheel of the Audi with the gunmen hours before the shooting, DeBoni said.
Police also recovered surveillance video from a gas station before the shooting that showed the Audi, the clothing they were wearing and the unmasked face of one of the gunmen.
Authorities tracked Lewis to a building in Lombard, where he was placed under surveillance. On Thursday, as police tried taking him into custody, he used a stolen SUV to evade officers.
Following Lewis’ arrest, police recovered a bag containing the rifle and .40-caliber handgun, which matched casings recovered from the scene of the homicide, authorities said.
Lewis’ attorney, Steve Greenberg, argued against holding his client without bail, adding that Lewis lived with his grandmother and has mental health problems.
But the judge approved the request, citing the evidence against him and a lengthy juvenile record. Lewis, who was also barred from contacting any witnesses, is scheduled to return to court Thursday.
