After just two full days of deliberations, a federal jury on Wednesday reached a verdict in the trial surrounding the brazen killing of rapper FBG Duck on the Gold Coast. 

Judge Martha Pacold was expected to read the verdict later Wednesday morning when the court reconvenes, closing out a trial that has been marred by delays and has stretched more than three months. 

Duck, real name Carlton Weekly, was gunned down in an allegedly gang-related shooting outside of a luxury clothing store in the first block of East Oak Street on Aug. 4, 2020. His girlfriend and another shopper were also wounded in the attack.

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The feds have tied the shooting to a brutal gang war between Duck’s Tookaville faction of the Gangster Disciples and the O Block set of the Black Disciples. The yearslong conflict was stoked by drill rap diss tracks between Duck and King Von, real name Dayvon Bennett, an O Block leader who allegedly placed a bounty on Duck before being shot to death months later. 

Prosecutors relied on a series of disreputable witnesses to testify about O Block’s inner workings and its lasting feud with Tookaville, which is also known as STL. Testimony showed that O Block collected dues and held regular meetings to discuss shootings and drug dealing, claims that are vital for prosecutor to prove O Block is a criminal enterprise and the defendants carried out the attack to maintain or increase their clout with the gang faction. 

On trial are Marcus “Muwop” Smart, 24; Christopher “C Thang” Thomas, 24; Kenneth “Kenny Mac” Roberson, 30; Charles “C Murda” Liggins, 32; Tacarlos “Los” Offerd, 32; and Ralph “Teezy” Turpin, 34. 

All the defendants are charged with murder in aid of racketeering and conspiring to kill Duck. Except for Turpin, the defendants face five additional counts for using firearms to carry out the shooting and wounding two others in the attack.

Turpin allegedly summoned the rest of the defendants to the swanky shopping district when he spotted Duck at a high-end children’s clothing store. Liggins, Thomas and Smart allegedly carried out the shooting, while Roberson and Offerd have been accused of serving as getaway drivers.

Everyone but Turpin was identified from surveillance footage at Parkway Gardens, the sprawling apartment complex on the South Side that’s also known as O Block and allegedly serves as the gang faction’s power base. The two cars were tracked from Parkway Gardens to Oak Street using city surveillance cameras and license plate readers, showing they traveled in lockstep.

Offerd returned his Ford Fusion to a suburban dealership shortly after the shooting and was picked up with Smart and Ezell Rawls, another alleged gunman who took his own life during the investigation. Police also seized Roberson’s Chrysler 300 the following day and found a shell casing that matched ballistic evidence found at the scene. 

But defense lawyers have pointed to the dearth of forensic evidence linking their clients to the scene of the shooting, and they’ve criticized the identifications made from surveillance footage at Parkway Gardens while seizing on the poor video quality and skips in the footage.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere /Sun-Times

Lawyers for Turpin and Roberson both hammered on the fact that their clients aren’t members of O Block. And Turpin’s lawyer, Patrick Boyle, argued there’s no clear evidence showing that Turpin made a phone call that brought the gunmen to the Gold Coast that day, as prosecutors have alleged. 

After jury selection began on Oct. 10, the trial proceeded in fits and starts. All the while, it played out on YouTube channels that highlighted the incendiary testimony of two gangbangers-turned-bloggers who sparred with defense attorneys and created a circus-like atmosphere in the courtroom. 

While Pacold rebuffed a mistrial motion stemming from an FBI agent’s testimony about witness retaliation, she hasn’t ruled on a pending call for a mistrial that relates to another YouTuber’s removal from the courtroom.