CHICAGO (AP) — Robbery was the motive that led to the killing of a criminal court judge outside his Chicago home, police said Wednesday.
Joshua Smith, 37, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and obstruction in the shooting death of Associate Cook County Circuit Judge Raymond Myles, said Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples.
A 52-year-old woman that the judge knew also was shot in the incident early Monday on the city’s South Side. She survived. Her name has not been released because police say she is a witness in the killing.
Staples said Wednesday that Smith did not act alone and that the investigation is ongoing. She said the gun in the shooting was also used in an armed robbery in January that left that victim wounded.
Video cameras on Myles’ home and others in the area helped police identify the car used by the suspects in the shooting and its license plate, Staples said. When police found the vehicle, it had a different license plate than the one seen in the videos, she said.
She said police don’t think the car owner took part in the crime.
Police have said the woman that Myles knew had already been shot and that Myles exchanged words with the attacker and then was shot, too.
Smith was convicted of armed robbery in 2003 and sentenced to six years in prison, according to authorities. The Chicago Sun-Times, citing court records, reported that Smith appeared before Myles in 2001 on a charge of failing to have a title for a vehicle and the case was dismissed.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi didn’t immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press regarding the vehicle title case.
Myles received his law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law. He was appointed to the court in 1999. Circuit court judges appointed him an associate judge in 2001 and Myles had served in the criminal division since 2009, according Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans.
The FBI is working with Chicago police on the investigation into Myles’ shooting, and is offering a $25,000 reward for information in the case.
PHOTO: AP
