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Prosecutor at Hobo gang trial: 'You will look into the eyes of murderers'

It all ended three years ago, when a gunman stepped from behind a shrub in Dolton and opened fire on the car that had carried Keith Daniels, his girlfriend, and their two "gorgeous little kids" home from a Sunday family dinner, riddling it with bullet holes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Otlewski described the coldblooded execution of Daniels, an FBI informant, to a jury. He asked, "who would kill a young father in front of his kids?"

Then, Otlewski pointed to the man seated behind him.

"A cold blooded murderer," Otlewski said. "And his name is Paris Poe."

Poe did not react as Otlewski described the slaying that gave an emphatic exclamation point to a decadelong crime spree committed by Chicago's so-called "super gang," the Hobos. Opening statements kicked off Wednesday in the federal racketeering trial of six alleged leaders of the gang, including Poe, at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

The trial could last months.

Otlewski called the Hobos "an all-star team of the worst of the worst" of Chicago's street gangs.

"You will look into the eyes of murderers," Otlewski told the jury.

The six alleged Hobos wore dress shirts and sweaters as they sat in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp, where security is tight and the jurors are anonymous. The alleged Hobos' attorneys also spoke to the jury, and it soon became clear that the Chicago Police Department's credibility could be going on trial, as well.

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