Teens Murder 20-Year-Old During Botched Drug Robbery: Prosecutors

SKOKIE, IL — Two teenagers from Waukegan are accused of murdering a 20-year-old Maine Township man during an armed robbery last week in Niles and dumping his body nearby, authorities said.

Both teens — a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old — have been charged with first-degree murder, one as an adult and one as a juvenile, according to Cook County prosecutors and sheriff's police. Another person who was with the duo has not been charged.

Hussein "Alex" Damra, 20, of unincorporated Des Plaines, was found dead on the side of the road near Golf Road and Greenwood Drive by sheriff's police around 9:15 p.m. on Feb. 28, according to sheriff's police.

Prosecutors said the elder of the two Waukegan teenagers shot Damra in the back of the head in the parking lot of Golf Mill Center in Niles. The younger of the two boys facing murder charges had taken a parent's car without permission and brought along the shotgun used in the slaying, according to prosecutors.

The teens' uncharged companion had arranged on social media to buy 5 pounds of cannabis from Damra, who they planned to rob at gunpoint, according to prosecutors. If Damra resisted, prosecutors alleged, the friends decided they would shoot him in the head.

Damra showed up at Golf Mill with a friend in his car and a .40 caliber Glock handgun hidden in his jacket, prosecutors said. But he was alone as he brought a black garbage bag containing 5 pounds of cannabis into a car with tinted windows — and three people that planned to rob him lying in wait.

Prosecutors said Damra showed the trio he was armed and his gun was loaded with hollow-point bullets before putting his pistol away.

The Waukegan teens "kept the cannabis and refused to pay the money," according to Assistant State's Attorney Andreana Turano.

Christopher Mota, 17, was sitting in the rear driver's side seat, with Damra in the front passenger spot, as they argued, according to Turano. Mota confessed to pointing the shotgun at the back of Damra's head at close range and firing, Turano said in a petition seeking to deny bail. She told the judge both Mota and his juvenile co-defendant have confessed to their roles in the slaying.

Immediately after the fatal shot, the robber who has not been charged grabbed the black bag and took off running, the prosecutor said. Damra's friend heard the shot and saw someone running away from the car before it began to drive away.

Mota and his younger companion drove for a few blocks before dumping Damra's body on the side of the road in front of a home in the 9500 block of West Greenwood Road, according to police and prosecutors.

They then drove up to Waukegan, where the two co-defendants planned to report the car had been stolen, according to prosecutors. Mota took Damra's gun and he and the 15-year-old tried to clean up the interior of the car, leaving what appeared to be bloody paper towels, insurance papers and identification papers for the car in plastic bags nearby in the 600 block of Market Street, prosecutors said.

The two teens attempted to drive the car into Lake Michigan by putting a cinder block on its gas pedal, but it became stuck on rocks and did not make it all the way into the lake, according to prosecutors.

Mota was able to call someone to come pick them up, authorities police. The 15-year-old first claimed he had been carjacked. But after officers interviewed him in the presence of his mother, he admitted to the fatal robbery and identified the other people involved, according to prosecutors.

According to prosecutors, investigators found the car, bloody clothes and shoes, a cellphone that corroborates the prosecutors' account, the stolen cannabis and Damra's gun, which was found in Mota's possession with what appeared to be blood on it, among other evidence.

Mota was arrested Sunday, charged with murder as an adult Tuesday and ordered held without bail for at least a week following a bond hearing before Associate Judge Michael Hood Wednesday in Skokie, according to police and prosecutors. No listed attorney information was immediately available Thursday.

According to Turano's petition on a hearing to deny bail, Mota's criminal history includes at least two encounters with Waukegan police in recent years. At 15, he was taken into custody with other minors trying to get into the garage of a vacant house. At age 16, he was part of a group of teens found hiding in a garage where officers reported finding a gun, bullets, a knife and brass knuckles.

Mota's 15-year-old co-defendant has been charged in juvenile court in Skokie, where he is due to appear next Monday. No information was immediately available about their uncharged co-offender. According to a release, Waukegan and Mundelein police assisted the Cook Cook Sheriff's Office with the investigation.

Earlier: Boys, 15 and 17, Charged With Murder In Fatal Shooting