Chicago gang boss Luther 'Bro Man' Spann says he had 'nothing to do with the Four Corner Hustlers' as he gets life term

Federal authorities say Labar “Bro Man” Spann “inflicted widespread terror on the West Side of Chicago,” murdered people “indiscriminately” and bragged about the deaths of his victims.

But Monday, nearly five years after Spann’s original conviction, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin finally handed down a life sentence to the onetime chief of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang.

“You’ll breathe your last breath in jail,” Durkin told Spann. “You’ll die in jail. That won’t bring back the people you killed.”

The judge also told Spann that it brought him “no pleasure” to hand down the sentence — prompting a laugh from Spann in the courtroom. Spann insisted during the hearing he had “nothing to do with the Four Corner Hustlers.”

“I’m my own man,” he said.

He also signaled he's not done challenging his conviction, telling prosecutors, "I'm gonna see you back here again."

Durkin had no choice but to give Spann life after a jury convicted the gang chief in December of racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, holding him responsible for four murders.

But it’s not the first time Spann faced sentencing. An earlier conviction in 2021 was undone by revelations that a former prosecutor made an “unauthorized” promise to a key witness. That led to Spann’s second trial, which took place over six weeks last fall.

Prosecutors told jurors that Spann and his gang “terrorized” the West Side for decades. Though he’d been paralyzed for much of his life as a result of a 1999 shooting, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Vermylen warned jurors not to be fooled.

“Make no mistake,” she said during opening statements in the trial last fall, “the defendant sitting in front of you is a killer.”

Prosecutors outlined the need for a life sentence in a recent court memo, noting that Spann’s co-conspirators “ruthlessly murdered, extorted, and robbed anyone in their way, from rival gang members, to law enforcement cooperators, to innocent bystanders.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan Morrissey told the judge Monday that each slaying "left a blast zone of grief and trauma that spread far beyond that one life."

Spann’s attorneys argued for a lighter sentence on certain counts while acknowledging the life sentence Durkin would hand down on others. They filed their own memo outlining Spann’s difficult childhood, in which he grew up in neighborhoods “plagued with severe crime.”

They told the judge Spann could not read when the feds locked him up, but he’s since taught himself to read, including “long excerpts of case law.”

Spann is tied to the killings of Maximillion McDaniel in July 2000; of George King in April 2003; of Willie Woods also in April 2003; and of Latin Kings chief Rudy “Kato” Rangel in June 2003.

The feds wrote that, after McDaniel was shot in the back of the head, Spann visited McDaniel’s brother in jail. The brother later testified that, during the visit, Spann told him, “don’t end up like your brother … who you think kill[ed] Max? … We killed Max.”

Two fellow Four Corner Hustlers killed Woods in 2003 on Spann’s orders, walking up to him and shooting him in the face, prosecutors wrote. Woods’ girlfriend described at trial how it happened right in front of her, and how she unsuccessfully tried to drag Woods into a car to get help.

The same men shot King several times, including once in the back of his head as he lay on the ground, while Spann was in the midst of a dispute with a rival faction of their gang, according to the feds.

Spann was offered $20,000 for Rangel’s death, and he sent someone to shoot Rangel “at point-blank range” while Rangel was getting a haircut, prosecutors wrote.

“The harm caused by [Spann] and his co-conspirators is real and permanent,” they argued. “His actions ended the lives of four men, depriving their families of time with their loved ones. The harm and pain caused to these families can never be repaired.

“A life sentence for these murders is the only sentence that properly serves the sentencing purpose of retribution.”

But Durkin reminded Spann that, in many states, he'd "be on death row." Illinois eliminated the death penalty in 2011, and federal prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty against him.

Still, the judge told Spann his crimes were "senseless."

"Just so you could be called 'Bro Man' and have people fear you — and be a boss to a bunch of losers," Durkin said.