Five plead innocent in Naperville man's slaying

All five men charged with the March 31 slaying of 23-year-old Naperville resident John Rosales pleaded innocent Friday to charges of first-degree murder, home invasion and armed robbery.

Aurora residents Cherrod Moore, 27; Courtney L. Mayes, 21; Reginald D. Chandler-Martin, 21; and Justin C. Harper, 20, all appeared together, wearing blue jumpsuits on a television feed from the Will County jail in Joliet. Tyrell Jackson, 20, of Villa Park and also wearing blue, appeared live in the Will County courtroom before Circuit Judge Richard Schoenstedt as their public defenders entered their not guilty pleas.

Jackson also pleaded not guilty to a second count of home invasion.

All five men are scheduled to appear at 9:30 a.m. May 30 in courtroom 405 for their joint pre-trial hearing. Each is being held on $5 million bond.

Police have characterized the murder as "a robbery of drugs gone bad." They allege Rosales was friends with two of the men implicated in the killing and had spent the day doing drugs and playing video games with them in his townhouse on Sheehan Drive.

Two of the men inside the unit also were labeled as victims, but Moore and Mayes are accused of conspiring for several weeks with Chandler-Martin and Jackson to rob Rosales.

Harper is accused of supplying the guns used in the robbery and the subsequent shooting of Rosales.

Police said Chandler-Martin and Jackson burst into Rosales' home just before 12:30 a.m. March 31. Jackson is accused of pistol-whipping one man and demanding money and drugs from Rosales. The robbers then told everyone to lie down, but Rosales refused and Jackson shot him once in the neck, police said.

The robbers fled to a waiting getaway car, police said. Rosales left the house shortly after being wounded and drove north in his car.

Rosales' friends had called police to report the shooting and followed behind Rosales' car.

Rosales crashed into a concrete median at 87th Street and stumbled from his car for about 200 feet before collapsing in a grassy portion of the median where his friends found him dead.

Police said Moore and Mayes were found at the victim's townhouse and were placed under arrest later that day after hours of questioning. Harper was arrested the next day near his home.