A Chicago man accused of fatally shooting a cashier and customer inside a Southwest Side convenience store in 2005 "almost got away with it," but a trail that started with lottery tickets he'd purchased moments before the killings ultimately led police to him, prosecutors said Tuesday as the man's double-murder trial got underway.
Timothy Fountain, 42, is charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery in the August 2005 shooting deaths of clerk Graciela Rodriguez, 37, and Nicholas Guerrero, 75, inside Maggy's Food Store in the 4400 block of South California Avenue.
Prosecutors said Fountain, a convicted robber, went into the store and ordered two Pick-Four lottery tickets from Rodriguez before announcing a robbery, grabbing cash from the register and forcing her at gunpoint to a back room, where he shot her in the head. On his way out of the store, Fountain shot and killed Guerrero, a grandfather of 15 who lived next door and visited the store every day to chat with Rodriguez.
Assistant State's Attorney Jeff Allen said in his opening statement to jurors at the Leighton Criminal Court Building that Fountain's only motive was "greed."
"They died for a few lousy dollars from the cash register," Allen said. "It's scary stuff."
Surveillance footage of the robbery was too grainy to positively identify the killer, and a composite sketch drawn from a teenage witness who saw the gunman outside the store minutes before the robbery did not yield any leads.
A few weeks later, with the case going cold, a detective on a hunch entered one of the lottery ticket numbers — 5157 — into a police database of convicted robbers, Allen said. Fountain's name popped up because he had used the address of 5157 S. Union Ave., which was his mother's house, when he was arrested in the late 1990s. Detectives then showed a photo array to the witness who'd seen the gunman, and he identified Fountain, according to the prosecutor.
Allen said in the ensuing investigation, DNA found under Guerrero's fingernails was matched to Fountain, indicating the two had struggled before Guerrero was shot. An FBI cell phone forensic analyst will also testify that Fountain's phone was pinging off towers in the vicinity of the store at the time of the murders, Allen said.
In her opening statement, Assistant Public Defender Lakshmi Jha said the prosecution's case was riddled with assumptions, bias and flaws. The teenager who identified Fountain from the photo array has changed his story over time, the cell phone evidence could not pinpoint Fountain's exact location, and nothing in the surveillance footage points to Fountain. A defense expert will testify the DNA evidence was misinterpreted by the state police crime lab and does not match Fountain, Jah said.
"Evaluate the evidence carefully because it's not all it's cracked up to be," Jah said.
The trial was scheduled to continue Wednesday before Judge Charles Burns.
If it weren't for all the political corruption, greed, payoffs, organized crime and murder, Chicago would be a real fun town to live in!
Chicago wasnt even on the list of the most dangerous cities in terms of crime risk
Yes my dear, but it was on the list of the most dangerous cities for lottery players.
Glad they caught the guy. I hope he gets the chair.
That would be my wish as well NightStalker, except that Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill in "11", that made Illinois the 16th state to
abolish the death penalty.
My grandmother use to live across the street from there. I was surprised when i heard about it.
Years ago i use to live in that neighboorhood. And i loved it. I went to grammer school and high
school. you had great neighboors and friends. You would walk down to Archer ave. and go shopping.
Now with the gangs over there. You have to go in before dark. There's writing on the buildings.
It's ashame.
Hey lady. I use to stay around that area as well. It's bad over there now. There's Kelly high school on corner of archer / California. Do u remember that?
"well the south side of chicago is the badest part of town, and if you go down there you best beware of a man named timothy fountain"
anyone know how the song ends ?
"he was cut in bout a hundred places and shot in a couple more"
this guy deserves the same.
I don't think it's maggy's food store anymore, looks like a tas-tee-freeze taco stand.
Yeah, and it boils down to money...saving money, but at the expense of another life taken. It costs less for a life term without parole than to execute. This is very controversial. It's good to save money when possible, but to give a murderer life w/o parole simply means that we, the tax payers, pay for this individual to still live a full life "on us". They wake up in the morning to breakfast, go out to the "yard" and play basketball, football, they lift weights and get into very good shape, etc. etc.
I watched a documentary a few short years ago where they showed how in lots of facilities, inmates actually eat better than lots of people not imprisoned! They had a bad ass dayroom with big t.v.'s and nice chairs! The prisoners they interviewed sort of bragged about it at that...said they "didn't want to come back home!!" I'll never forget this as long as I'm living. To get to where I'm going, we have homeless people that can't even eat...let alone eat that well. But, these people eat well even after killing people! I've always thought that prison was supposed to be for punishment...not luxury foods and ammenities.
These guys need to planting and harvesting more crops, planting and bailing more hay, making bricks, etc. etc. ALL DAY LONG. Better yet, I volunteered my service to the Army...lots of these cats need to be recruited to a specialized facility, trained, and sent to where ever we may be at war. Here are some great candidates to replace the soldiers coming home from Afghanistan! Put them on the front line! This way, they're off the streets, not in prison, and government get's real service out of them...AND I SUPPOSE IT COSTS EVEN LESS. Especially if/when they die in the line of fire.
L.L.
This is why everyone should buy lottery tickets: it helps us find truth & justice!
The military considers these ppl. untrainable and is not interested in them.
desperate times call for desperate measures....i guess
but wow that lunatic must of been moonstrucked and cracked....it is a mad world that we dwell in
Well, you know what they say about the government..."If it makes sense..." If these guys in prison can plot, plan, case, execute breaking into people's homes, catch a store at its' peak hours to run in and steal, or catch it when it's empty and rob it, then they have a brain and are trainable. In all the scenarios here, innocent people have been killed and it's not fair that they are just sent to a life long vacation...sorry, I'm not with that.
If I'm going to pay for a convicted felon to remain alive on a clear cut murder charge, his a** needs to be in a uniform, in the middle east, with rounds being fired at him and flying by within several feet of his head! They need to see what it feels like to really be afraid of losing their own life...be in a real fire fight with others armed just as heavy as they are and want to kill them. For me, there's just no debate.
L.L.