(CHICAGO) A person of interest in the murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee is free on bail after meeting the $1 million bond requirements ordered on a weapons charge.
The seven-figure bond set for Corey Morgan Wednesday drew gasps from the courtroom gallery, but less than 48 hours later, Morgan had posted the required 10-percent of the bond and was free, according to law enforcement sources. Morgan returned to court Monday for a hearing.
Morgan’s girlfriend, who received a large court settlement in a lawsuit against a hospital, supplied the $100,000, a law enforcement source said. Morgan’s attorney, Jeff Kent, did not return messages from the Sun-Times. Morgan’s lawyers have said Morgan is a construction worker.
Though he now faces only a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon, Morgan, 27, has been named by police as a person of interest in Tyshawn’s murder. Police say the grade-schooler was targeted in retribution for the killing of Morgan’s brother, Tracey Morgan, who was gunned down three weeks before Tyshawn was killed. Morgan’s mother was shot in the arm during the attack.
Police believe Tyshawn was lured into an alley near his grandparents’ house in the 8000 block of South Damen on Nov. 13. The grade-schooler was shot multiple times at close range with a .40-caliber weapon.
Police are running tests on two .40-caliber pistols they found when they searched a car in which Corey Morgan and Dwight Boone-Doty were driving last week in Evergreen Park.
Police say they saw a pistol tucked in Boone-Doty’s waistband as he and Morgan got into the car and left a Hilton Hotel in south suburban Oak Lawn. Police pulled the men over a few blocks away in Evergreen Park, and found Boone-Doty with one pistol still tucked in his waistband, and the second gun in a duffel bag Morgan was seen carrying outside the hotel.
Morgan has been barred from owning a firearm after he was convicted of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Boone-Doty is on parole for a drug and weapons case from Downstate Sangamon County.
