Man charged in 10-year-old Wheaton murder
Nearly 10 years ago, federal and local authorities scoured a suspected drug dealer's Wheaton townhouse. That same night, they rushed back to investigate his slaying.
The fatal shooting of 32-year-old Aldis Lynn Tucker remained unsolved until an informant's tip last year gave police the break they long sought.
Raymond E. Winters, 42, is expected to appear in DuPage County bond court early Thursday on two counts of first-degree murder.
He was supposed to be paroled Wednesday after serving half of a 10-year sentence on an unrelated vehicular hijacking charge. Instead, Wheaton police detectives surprised Winters at a downstate prison with the new charges.
Winters is accused of traveling to Wheaton late July 28, 1999 to rob Tucker, a former Chicago man who moved to the Briarcliffe subdivision a year earlier. Authorities searched Tucker's townhouse on Reading Court hours earlier as part of a narcotics investigation.
They confiscated three luxury cars, including a Mercedes, nearly $30,000 cash and electronics. Tucker had just returned from the Wheaton police station, where he went for voluntary questioning, when he encountered his assailant.
Authorities said Winters repeatedly shot Tucker with a semiautomatic handgun after he took off running. Police found his body on a neighbor's lawn about 10:30 p.m.
Detectives chased hundreds of leads and offered a $5,000 reward, but the case grew cold. Two other men, however, were arrested as part of the narcotics investigation.
The slain man's friend, Christopher B. Heard, 39, received a 12-year prison sentence in 2000 after pleading guilty to drug charges. Police confiscated more than 400 grams of cocaine and nearly $11,500 cash after searching his Wheaton Square apartment on the day of the murder.
Authorities were led to Heard after he stopped by Tucker's home shortly after their search ended. A federal DEA agent staking out the neighborhood spotted Heard's Mercedes parked in the driveway. Police learned the Mercedes was registered to the same bogus name Tucker used for one of his cars. Heard was in police custody when Tucker was gunned down.
Another of Tucker's acquaintances, Rodney Fields, 35, of Chicago, received a 3-year stint in prison in 2002 for money laundering.
Authorities said Tucker, Heard and Fields were drug dealers who operated businesses as fronts for their drug profits and also used other people's names to buy luxury cars so authorities couldn't track the illegal income.
Fields owned a Maywood record store. Tucker and Heard owned hair salons in Chicago and Westmont.
Authorities obtained a break in the case early last year with a jailhouse informant's tip. Detectives worked the lead for more than a year to build a stronger case.
On Monday, a DuPage County judge issued a no-bond arrest warrant for Winters on first-degree murder charges. Two witnesses, including the informant, testified before a DuPage County grand jury Tuesday.
Detectives traveled early Wednesday to Centralia Correctional Center in southern Illinois to arrest Winters, who was preparing to be released on parole. They had returned to DuPage County that afternoon.
His criminal history includes a 2004 vehicular hijacking, 2002 possession of a weapon by a felon; 1996 possession of a weapon near a school; and 1996 and 1992 drug possession, all of which Winters was sentenced to serve time in prison.