A former North Side gang member testified Monday that a killer on Death Row for a triple gang slaying bragged to him 13 years ago that Placido Laboy, who is on trial in the same murders, had been involved in the killings.
Julio Lopez, 29, told jurors that several days after three youths were found fatally stabbed, Luis Ruiz, a fellow gang member, bragged that he, Laboy and two others had been the killers.
Laboy, 33, who is acting as his own lawyer, cross-examined Lopez and tried to dismiss Ruiz`s comments as normal bragging among gang members.
”During your years as a Latin King, when you were with your friends, would they brag about the things they`d do?” Laboy asked Lopez.
”Yeah, they`d brag about the things they`d do,” Lopez said, smiling with amusement. ”That particular day, (Ruiz) was braggin` about him and you.”
Lopez wore ankle shackles as he testified that he had seen the gang members earlier on the night of the three murders. He is in federal custody in San Diego awaiting trial on charges that he tampered with a trial witness and tried to retaliate against a witness.
Prosecutors Thomas Hennelly and Anthony Calabrese have alleged that Laboy and three friends fatally stabbed three youths they did not know after offering to take them to a place where they could buy marijuana.
The killings on Feb. 25, 1979, occurred after one of the youths, Michael Salcido, 17, allegedly bragged to Laboy and his friends that he was a ”King killer,” because he believed Laboy and his group belonged to a gang that was at war with the Latin Kings.
Salcido, of Des Plaines; his brother, Arthur, 19, of Princeton, Ill.; and Frank Mussa, 16, of Princeton, were fatally stabbed in an alley behind the 1400 block of West Pensacola Avenue.
Laboy and two others were arrested in March 1979, but Laboy was released uncharged. Ruiz and another youth were convicted in 1980 and sentenced to death and a fourth participant, Nelson Aviles, 30, fled to California and was not arrested until 1988, when he implicated Laboy in the killings.
Laboy was convicted in the interim of an unrelated armed robbery and aggravated criminal sexual assault and is serving a 75-year prison term.
