A Kenosha man was sentenced to death Wednesday in Cook County Criminal Court for the 1995 slaying of a Chicago Streets and Sanitation worker.
Richard Morris, 25, was convicted by a jury Dec. 3 in Judge Michael Toomin’s courtroom of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and vehicular hijacking.
An accomplice, Tywon Knight, 23, who was convicted a day later by a different jury, is facing life imprisonment when he is sentenced on Jan. 4. They were charged in the Dec. 2, 1995 slaying of Ervin Shorter.
A third defendant, Morris’ wife, Lyda Morris, currently is on trial.
According to prosecutors, the two men approached Shorter as he walked to his car in a lot at Wentworth Avenue and Garfield Boulevard.
The men, who had guns, demanded his car, took a small amount of money and put him in the trunk.
As they drove away with Lyda Morris following them in another vehicle, Shorter used tools he had in the trunk to try to escape, police said.
When the suspects noticed, they pulled into an alley at 1800 W. Cornelia Ave. and shot him twice in the head, prosecutors said.
The three defendants also are charged with the unrelated murder of a 25-year-old Kenosha man.
