Alleged killer of Jesse White tumbler now charged in second murder
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Criminal Courts Reporter rhussain@suntimes.com June 22, 2012 5:26PM
Eddie Fenton / photo from Cook County Sheriff's office
Updated: July 24, 2012 9:50AM
Two years ago, Eddie Fenton was charged in the 2006 murder of a Jesse White tumbler who was a star Robeson High School basketball player. Willie Williams III was trying to break up a fight between Fenton and a friend when Fenton allegedly opened fire and shot the 17-year-old in a parking lot at Ford City Mall. It wasn’t the only deadly fight Fenton was involved in that year, Cook County prosecutors revealed Friday. Months before, Fenton opened fire at a “Back to School” party at his sister’s South Side home, killing 28-year-old Johnathan Bowman and wounding another, assistant state’s attorney Patrick Morley said. Fenton, apparently agitated over a fight that broke out, shot into the crowd of those quarreling, authorities said. When others went to assist Bowman, Fenton shot at them, too, Morley said. Standing over one victim, Fenton told him, “You will die tonight,” Morley said. Fenton, who was identified by several eyewitnesses for the party shooting in the 7300 block of South Morgan, was questioned just days after it but was released without being charged. Since then, ballistics tests and additional witnesses have linked Fenton to the Jan 9, 2006, murder, Morley said. Fenton, now 27, admitted to authorities this week that he had fired a gun nine times the day of the party, authorities said. He is now being held in Cook County Jail without bond for Williams’ April 1, 2006, murder and for allegedly harassing a witness in that case. Judge Laura Sullivan Friday ordered Fenton held without bond for Bowman’s murder. Bowman’s mother Loretta Bowman and his sister Roxanna Daniel attended the bond hearing but refused comment.
