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possible new-trial motion prompted a delay in sentencing Tuesday for a gang member convicted of murder for killing two female bystanders and wounding 7-year-old boy in a revenge shooting outside a Lincoln Park liquor store in on New Year's Day 2003.
James Lionel Carter, 37, was found guilty in June of two counts of murder, three counts of premeditated attempted murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. He faces a sentence of life in prison without parole.
On Tuesday, defense attorney Brad Patton told Judge Kenneth So that he needs to interview a witness this week to determine whether to file a motion for a new trial.
The judge set a status conference for Aug. 8 and sentencing for three days later should the motion not be filed.
In his closing argument of trial, Deputy District Attorney Robert Hickey urged jurors to convict Carter for the shooting outside Dr. J's liquor store that killed 45-year-old Carol Waites and 32-year-old Sharen Burton, and wounded Waites' 7-year-old nephew.
The victims had stopped at Dr. J's on Logan Avenue on their way home from church about 1 a.m. when the shots were fired.
According to the prosecution, two carloads of gang members pulled up to the store and an "incredible number" of shots rang out, probably more than 50.
Carter's gang was "enflamed" by the murder of his close friend, Thomas Brown, 24 hours earlier, Hickey said.
The prosecutor said Carter and his fellow gangsters shot at their rivals, who hid behind the victims' car.
In his closing argument, Patton said that circumstantial and "snitch" evidence wasn't enough to convict his client.
Rap lyrics found in Carter's jail cell last year, which prosecutors claim are confessions to the murders, were nothing more than lyrics written by a man interested in going into the rap lyric production business, his attorney said.
Patton said the prosecution's theory of the shootings is not consistent with the incident's timeline.
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