A Chicago man charged with murdering 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins as her father was changing her diaper will be back in court today for a status hearing.
Koman Willis, who pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated murder, is believed to have committed the March 2013 murder in retaliation for a burglary the baby’s father allegedly committed at Willis’s mother’s house. One of the items taken was a PlayStation video game console.
Willis maintains that the baby was not his intended target, and will be ineligible for the death penalty in Illinois, where it has been outlawed.
This past weekend, six people were killed and 21 injured in Chicago, including a little girl who was playing on her scooter while attending a memorial service for a man who was killed five years ago while sitting on his front porch.
Local crime blogger “Second City Cop” wrote about the little girl’s murder, along with the wounding of her aunt, calling for more police presence and less talk from the city, writing:
Just riding her bike, catches a bullet through-and-through her chest.
We wonder where she fell on the “heat list.” Maybe instead of making tenuous connections between assholes who probably deserve to get shot and drafting letters to them, the community ought to demand fewer “more with less” speeches and a couple more “hire police” commitments.
President Obama, who has continued to weigh in against gun violence, when it comes to the death of Trayvon Martin, stating over the weekend, Trayvon, “could have been me,” has remained largely silent regarding the ongoing war-zone that plagues Chicago’s mostly black and poorer urban communities.