A man is now also facing charges after a teen pleaded guilty to shooting and killing a U.S. Postal Service worker in Chicago in 2024, officials said.
The video in the player above is from a previous report.
A Cook County judge on Wednesday granted prosecutors' request to keep a 35-year-old man jailed pending trial in connection with the fatal shooting on Chicago's South Side.
Lyndell DeYoung is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Octavia Redmond, a 48-year-old postal worker who was shot and killed while on her route along South Harvard on July 19, 2024.
Prosecutors allege DeYoung orchestrated the shooting. According to prosecutors, a juvenile who shot Redmond testified before a grand jury that he acted because DeYoung ordered him to do so and threatened his life.
The juvenile, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to five years in juvenile detention. Prosecutors said DeYoung allegedly told the teen that if he did not kill Redmond, DeYoung would do it himself and then kill the juvenile as well.
Prosecutors also allege that DeYoung specifically targeted Redmond, claiming he watched her mail route in the days and weeks leading up to the shooting. They said cellphone data, messages and evidence tied to the stolen vehicle used in the shooting linked DeYoung to the crime.
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Redmond's colleagues welcomed the judge's ruling but said it does not lessen their loss.
"At the end of the day it doesn't bring her back ... we've been fighting this battle for so long trying to get justice for her and for all the carriers that's out there working with no protection," said Elise Foster of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 11.
"I think it'll be something we can have closure for her family and postal family," Foster said.
DeYoung is the third person charged in connection with the shooting. He has requested a trial and is scheduled to return to court Sept. 17.