Less than a week after a mother was accused of telling her 14-year-old son to kill a man who punched her, prosecutors in Chicago on Monday dropped all charges against both mother and son citing “emerging evidence,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The mother, 35-year-old Carlishia Hood, was in court last Thursday charged with first-degree murder and contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was held on $3 million bail.
When presenting their case, prosecutors said that 32-year-old Jeremy Brown punched Hood in the head after they got into an argument while waiting in line at the Maxwell Street Express on South Halsted.
Hood then texted her son and instructed him to come to the restaurant. As the argument got physical, Hood’s son shot Brown in the back. As Brown fled into the parking lot, the 14-year-old continued firing as he and his mother chased after him. In the parking lot, Hood told her son to continue shooting until Brown was dead.
Prosecutors also accused Hood of telling her son to kill Brown’s girlfriend and attempting to take the gun away from her son. After the incident, mother and son left for home.
Judge Barbara Dawkins scheduled Hood’s next court date for July. But prosecutors from Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office scheduled a hearing on Monday where they announced that all charges against Hood were dismissed.
Later, the State’s Attorney’s Office released a statement saying that the murder charges against Hood’s 14-year-old son were also dismissed.
According to the statement, the charges against Hood and her son were dismissed “in light of emerging evidence.” Prosecutors claimed that they were “unable to meet our burden of proof” based on “the facts, evidence, and the law.”
While the State’s Attorney’s Office did not specify what this “emerging evidence” was, the decision to dismiss the charges came after video footage surfaced showing the victim Jeremy Brown punching Hood. The video, which made the rounds on social media, does not include the shooting itself which was captured by surveillance cameras.
