SURVIVOR STORIES

ABDUL-MALIK MUHAMMAD

Abdul-Malik Muhammad
Tortured, Convicted, Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison

At 9:00 pm on May 4, 1999 Damone Mims was shot and killed while he sat in a car on 76th St at Stony Island Ave. waiting for the light to change. Mims’ was driving westbound on 76th Street and was in the left turn lane. An unknown person ran up to Mims's car, shot him several times and then fled on foot. 

At least four people witnessed the shooting. Bradley Huett and his wife were in a car next to Mims at the light when the shooting occurred and witnessed the entire event. Huett watched in his rear-view mirror as the shooter ran east on 76th Street until he disappeared into a street or alley behind Jackson Park hospital, which is at that corner. Another witness, Eddie Wilson, was with his mother and his sister and were walking to the bus stop on the west side of Stony Island, over 150 feet away. Wilson said he saw a man exit a maroon van that was eastbound on 76th and shoot into a car at the intersection. He heard the shots and saw the shooter run east, away from them. Another witness, Glen Davis and his wife were driving south on Stony Island and heard the shots and saw the shooter run east, away from them. A fourth witness, an employee at Jackson Park Hospital which is at that corner, also witnessed the shooting, but his identity has been withheld by police.

An anonymous tipster told police Aubree Dungey and an individual who went by the name "Malik" had done the murder. Dungey, a heroin dealer, was picked up by police. He was questioned for four days. On or about June 1, 1999, Dungey gave police a statement implicating himself and Abdul-Malik Muhammad. A warrant was issued for Muhammad five weeks after the shooting, on June 9, 1999. Muhammad was 19 years old and could barely read or write. 

Dungey had been interrogated for two days by detectives, including Det. Michael McDermott. Ultimately, he confessed that he had driven a car in which Muhammad had been the passenger, and that Muhammad had shot Mims. 

Dungey has provided various accounts of his own role in the Mims murder - most of which have him as an innocent bystander. However, he told his "god mother" Denise Morgan, a heroin supplier, details about the murder shortly afterwards, enough to conclude that Mr. Dungey was connected to this killing and was probably close to the scene when the murder took place. Morgan was a well-known heroin supplier who supplied heroin to both Dungey and his friend Joshua "Malik" Samuels who in turn sold the heroin. Both Dungey and Samuels were members of the Blackstone Rangers, which an anonymous letter said was connected to the shooting. 

Dungey was tried and convicted in 2000 prior to Muhammad's trial and given a 40-year sentence.

Dungey has since recanted his confession. His most recent version of events alleges that he was tortured into confessing to his role in the murder. However, his story has changed so often and so much over years that the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (TIRC) found his claim of having been tortured not to be credible.

Abdul-Malik Muhammad arrested

Malik-Abdul Muhammad was not in Chicago the day Mims was murdered. On May 1, 1999, several days prior to Mims’ murder, an older, well-known gang member in Muhammad's neighborhood named Antonio Walker, was shot in the foot. That evening Muhammad was attacked by a gang of young men as he and his cousin sat in his cousin’s car. They kicked and beat them both with baseball bats, glass bottles, and fists. 

Muhammad was taken to Jackson Park hospital by ambulance. He had two black eyes, his skull was broken in two places, and his hands were bloodied and swollen. He had multiple facial and body lacerations, and a concussion. Several staples were required to repair his skull. 

In the early morning of May 2nd Muhammad was released from the hospital and sent home. His mother had heard about the shooting of Walker on the day before and had heard rumors that her son might have been involved in that shooting. She was concerned about a dispute between her teenage son and the older and infamous Walker. Muhammad had often been sent to stay with his grandmother near Seattle, Washington, and his mom again sent him there, where he flew on May 3. 

Muhammad stayed and worked for seven months in Seattle until February 2000, when he was picked up on an arrest warrant that had been issued in Chicago on June 9, 1999, five weeks after Mims’ murder. He sat there in jail until Chicago police detectives Michael McDermott and David Fidyk came to Seattle and brought him back to Chicago on April 27, 2000. They took him directly to the Area 2 Violent Crimes Headquarters. 

Over the next four days Muhammad was tortured by Dets. McDermott and Fidyk, as well as George Karl, Angelo Pesavento and Tony Ramiriz. He repeatedly asked for an attorney, but his requests were ignored. An Assistant State’s Attorney told him that he would be his attorney, but Muhammad was not fooled. The detectives repeatedly struck Muhammad during the interrogation. They said they had two white witnesses who would identify him as the killer and that white witnesses would be believed.

In the course of the four days of his interrogation the two white eyewitnesses were brought in by police to view a lineup that included Muhammad. The first was Bradley Huett, the man who had been in the car next to Mims when he was shot. Huett viewed the line-up and selected another individual as the killer. Detective McDermott told him that he picked the wrong man and pointed out Muhammad to him. Huett told McDermott that Muhammad looked different and must have gained a lot of weight. 

A worker at Jackson Park Hospital, outside of which the shooting had occurred, was the second person to view the line-up. He had seen the shooting. He also did not identify Muhammad as the shooter, and Muhammad heard him tell the detectives, “Sorry I couldn’t’help but I have to get back to the hospital.” An ASA who was present confirmed to Muhammad what he had heard. 

In 2014 Muhammad filed a claim of torture with the TIRC. During its proceedings Huett was located and confirmed that he had witnessed a line-up with Muhammad and had identified someone other than him as the perpetrator, someone much thinner than the stocky Muhammad. In an affidavit to the TIRC Huett said he was waiting for the light to change at Stony Island and was right next to Mims’ car, which was in the left turn lane. He saw a young man approach Mims’ car and shoot him five or six times. The shooter had no visible bandages or other injuries to his heard that were visible. Yet Muhammad had been severely injured the day before, as noted above.

No reports or documents regarding either line up and the witnesses’ inability to identify Muhammad were ever given to Muhammad or his counsel. The only evidence that the lineups occurred is Muhammad’s own account of them, and Huett’s affidavit. 

Police also attempted to put the shooting of Antonio Walker on Muhammad. Walker had told police that two men named Malik and Josh, were the ones who had shot him. McDermott approached Walker and Anthony Townsend, who was with Walker when he was shot, and told them that the had arrested Muhammad and that he was the “Malik” who had shot him. When they told McDermot they were mistaken McDermott slapped Townsend and brought him and Walker into the station and pressed both to give statements implicating Muhammad. They handcuffed Townsend to a wall. Both refused to give statements.

With their case against Muhammad falling apart the cops increased their torture of Muhammad, pressing him to confess. Except for one sandwich and one trip to the toilet that first night, Mr. Muhammad was provided no other food, water, or access to a bathroom during those four days. He had to urinate and defecate in his shirt in the interrogation room where he was being held. 

Muhammad refused to confess and repeatedly asked to speak to an attorney, which was ignored. At his trial, however, McDermot testified that Muhammad confessed to him verbally. He said Muhammad told him he had gone to Seattle because he knew about the arrest warrant against him. This, although he left the day before Mims’ murder and fully a week before the warrant was issued.

At least three other witnesses were tortured and threatened into implicating Mr. Muhammad in the murder of Mims - Terry Taylor, Muhammad’s uncle Seth Richardson, and his cousin Jermaine Bates. 

According to an affidavit given by Taylor to Muhammad’s post-conviction counsel, Candace Gorman, McDermott tortured him after searching the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and found guns there. In addition to torturing Taylor, McDermott said he would not charge him and his girlfriend with possession of unlawful weapons if they would give a false statement and testimony that they had given Muhammad a gun before Mims’ murder. Taylor gave McDermott the statement he wanted and agreed to testify against Muhammad. In his affidavit Taylor states that he told the ASA before the trial that his statement was false, but the ASA threatened to charge him with perjury if he recanted. So he testified, as ordered, at Muhammad’s trial.

Richardson was kept at Area 2 for a day and a half following the arrest of Muhammad in April 2000. Richardson was beaten and punched by detective McDermott and others, but he refused to provide a false statement. After a day and a half of such torture Richardson was brought before the grand jury and tricked into stating he saw Muhammad on the day of the murder. Richardson has given Gorman an affidavit that (as he tried to explain in Court during Muhammad’s trial) he, in fact, does not know what date he saw Muhammad, but he believes it was the day after Mr. Muhammad was beaten up-- which would have been at least two days before the Mims murder and the day before Muhammad left for Seattle. 

Finally, Jermaine Bates, Muhammad's cousin, had been tortured and threatened by McDermott several years earlier and had provided a false confession in another matter. Bates was tortured and threatened yet again, and this time agreed to say that his cousin admitted to him his involvement in the Mims murder and the Walker shooting. Bates has said in an affidavit obtained by Gorman that he only signed a statement implicating Muhammad in the Mims murder and the Walker shooting because of his fear of McDermott. Bates’s statement was used to obtain the warrant for Muhammad’s arrest, but he hid from police and did not testify at Muhammad’s trial. Like so many of the documents in this case, both of Bates’ statements are missing from the police file.

Now, another witness to the crime, Maurice Murray, has come forward. Murphy was in another car directly behind the car Mims was driving. They were close friends and were bringing the car Mims was driving to Adrian Herman, also a friend of Mims. The car belonged to was Adrian Herman’s girlfriend. Herman had asked Mims to bring the car to him from his girlfriend’s house, which he was doing when he was killed.

Murray gave police at the scene of the crime a detailed statement in which he described the shooter as a Black man with a lighter complexion, about 5’7’ or 5’8 and of thin build, not at all like Malik Muhammad. Murray has stated unequivocally that the person who killed his friend Damone Mims was not Muhammad. 

No information or copies of the interview notes from the eyewitness Murray was in the police file or ever provided to Muhammad or his attorney.

Lastly, Joshua “Malik” Samuels was a close associate of Dungey’s in the heroin trade, and the tip police received identified Dungey and someone named “Malik” as responsible for Mims’ murder.

The trial of Abdul-Malik Muhammad

At Muhammad’s trial Eddie Wilson, Glen Davis, Adrian Herman, and Seth Richardson testified against him. 

Wilson told how he, his mother, and his sister had been shopping and were walking to the bus stop on Stony Island when he heard the 6 gunshots. He identified Muhammad as the man he’d seen in a photo array a week after the shooting and in a lineup almost a year later. The fact that neither his mother nor his sister had identified Muhammad was not mentioned and was unknown to the defense.

Davis testified that a week after he had told police he’d seen the shooting he was shown a photo array by police and identified Muhammad as the shooter. There’s no police record, however, of Davis having ever been at the police station or viewing the photo array. 

Herman, whom Mims had been on his way to pick up, testified that he had seen Dungey and Muhammad together in a car shortly before the shooting. 

Richardson testified that Muhammad had been angry when he saw him, although he could not say on which day that was. In an affidavit given to Gorman, however, Richardson says that he was tortured by McDermott, who held him incommunicado for 36 hours before he finally agreed to give a statement and testify. 

Following a jury trial Muhammad was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison. 

The evidence is now clear that CPD detectives, Michael McDermott, David Fidyk, George Karl, Angelo Pesavento, and Tony Ramiriz, fabricated a false confession by Muhammad, conducted improper lineups in violation of CPD policy, failed to disclose lineups in which Muhammad was not identified, tortured witnesses into providing false statements, provided undisclosed deals to at least two witnesses, and lied on the stand during his trial. The evidence also shows that the State’s Attorney's office was aware of much of the misconduct by the CPD and rather than identify that misconduct it instead facilitated the misconduct. 

A special prosecutor, Robert Milan, was appointed by the court for Muhammad’s trial. However, Milan, had been First Assistant at the CCSAO, when that office brought on McDermott as an investigator after he retired from the CPD. Milan had supervised the Felony Review unit employees and the trial counsel who engaged in the misconduct in Muhammad’s trial. Many of those subordinates of Milan, indeed, possibly even Milan himself, will be called as witnesses in Muhammad’s post-conviction hearing. A motion to rescind Special Prosecutor Milan’s appointment based on the appearance of his conflict and impropriety is currently pending.

Today Muhammad helps with activities at the Stateville Correctional Center, has completed two years of college at Northwestern University obtaining his associate degree in January 2022. In December 2021 Mr. Muhammad was accepted as a full-time student in the Bachelor of Science program, pursuing a major in Social Sciences. Muhammad is respected by prison officials, professors, and peers. 

Det. McDermott has a long history of torturing suspects. In the trial of Commander Jon Burge, leader of a group of officers in Chicago known as “the Midnight Crew” of torturers, McDermott admitted under a grant of immunity that he had participated in the torture of numerous suspects. Since then McDermott has refused to testify about his activities as a torturer, taking the Fifth Amendment.  

Abdul-Malik Muhammad and his attorney, Candace Gorman, welcome all who believe in Muhammad’s innocence to support him at the hearings in his case.

All the information in this fact sheet is documented in proceedings before the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission and/or documents filed in this case in the court.