Four Corner Hustlers Leader Labar Spann Sentenced to Life in Federal Prison for Racketeering Conspiracy Involving Four Murders
U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin imposed the mandatory life term Monday in Chicago federal court. A jury convicted Spann, 47, in December 2025 after a five-week trial that held him responsible for four murders committed between 2000 and 2003 on Chicago's West Side.
The 47-year-old leader of Chicago's Four Corner Hustlers street gang, Labar "Bro Man" Spann, was sentenced to life in federal prison on Monday for a racketeering conspiracy that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois described as having "terrorized the West Side of Chicago for two decades by committing murders, robberies, extortions, witness tampering, and drug dealing."
U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin imposed the sentence in federal court in Chicago. The life term was mandatory under federal law given the jury's findings.
A jury convicted Spann in December 2025, after a five-week trial, on all four counts against him: racketeering conspiracy, two murders in aid of racketeering, and extortion. The jury held him responsible for four murders committed as part of the conspiracy.
The four murders
Per the government's indictment and the jury's verdict, Spann directed or committed the following killings:
- Maximillion McDaniel — July 25, 2000
- George King — April 8, 2003
- Willie Woods — April 16, 2003
- Rudy Rangel — June 4, 2003
In the government's sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Meghan C. Morrissey, Michelle J. Parthum, and Emily C.R. Vermylen wrote:
"At defendant's direction, his co-conspirators ruthlessly murdered, extorted, and robbed anyone in their way, from rival gang members, to law enforcement cooperators, to innocent bystanders. 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."
The gang and the case
The Four Corner Hustlers operated primarily in the West Garfield Park and North Lawndale neighborhoods on Chicago's West Side, as well as in the former LeClaire Courts public housing development on the Southwest Side, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Evidence presented at trial described the gang dealing drugs, robbing and extorting rival dealers, and using violence to deter witnesses and cooperators. Testimony during the trial came from other Four Corner Hustlers members, eyewitnesses, responding officers, and forensic experts.
Spann was indicted in 2017 along with eight other Four Corner Hustlers members and two additional defendants. All eleven defendants were ultimately convicted.
Who announced the sentence
Andrew S. Boutros, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced the sentence alongside Douglas S. DePodesta, the FBI's Special Agent-in-Charge in Chicago; Christopher Amon, the Chicago Field Division Special Agent-in-Charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Illinois Secretary of State Police, Illinois Department of Corrections, Illinois State Police, the Cook County Sheriff's Office, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office also provided assistance on the case.