Department of Justice

CHICAGO — A federal judge has sentenced a Chicago man to life in prison for committing murder to maintain and increase his position in a violent Chicago street gang.

PIERRE ROBINSON, 29, of Chicago, was found guilty of committing murder in aid of racketeering by a federal jury in August, 2022. The jury returned its verdict after a four-day trial in U.S. District Court in Chicago. On March 6, 2023, U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp, Jr., sentenced Robinson to life in prison.

The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Christopher C. Amon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and David Brown, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Albert Berry III and Margaret Steindorf.

Evidence at trial revealed that Robinson murdered Glenn Houston, Jr., on Dec. 23, 2014, for the purpose of maintaining and increasing Robinson’s position in the Evans Mob street gang. Robinson shot Houston, 23, multiple times inside a store in the 400 block of East 79th Street in the Chatham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. The Evans Mob, also known as “GuttaGang” and “Hitz Squad,” is a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in narcotics trafficking and committed acts of violence, including murder, attempted murder, and assault, to acquire and preserve the gang’s territory on the South Side of Chicago. Members of the Evans Mob used social media to publicly claim responsibility for their acts of violence, taunt rival gang members, and took steps to prevent law enforcement’s detection of its criminal activities.

During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Tharp determined that Robinson was also involved in the murder and attempted murder of two other individuals, Hammood Dawoudi and DeShawn Danzler, on June 18, 2015.