Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 2-3

3 NCHICAGO TRIBUNE METRO SECTION2 Lake County police announced Monday that three alleged gang leaders had been arrested as a result of the new effort to publicize its top 10 most- wanted criminals. After hearing his name was on the list, Cordale Handy, 20, turned himself in to police March 24, just days after the list was released, police officials said Monday. The Waukegan resident, wanted on carjacking charges, is being held in the County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, Sheriff Mark Curran said. Police in Pleasant Prairie, acted on a tip from Lake County and arrested William Earl Gist, 26, also on March 24. The Beach Park man, wanted on an aggravated battery charge, is awaiting extradition in the Kenosha County Jail, Curran said.

Another tip led Waukegan police to Derek Gordon, 29, on- March 25. Gordon, who was wanted on drug charges, surrendered after a domestic confrontation in which police were called, and is being held on $30,000 bail, authorities said. 3 on most-wanted list are in police custody LAKE COUNTY People at risk for domestic violence would have a harder time getting help if proposed federal funding cuts are approved, advocates and two members of Congress said Monday. The Bush proposed 2009 federal budget, which covers the year beginning Oct. 1, would reduce by about 20 percent the main federal grants that fund victim assistance for those seeking to escape abusive relationships or stalking situations, domestic violence advocates said.

In Illinois, the cuts would be sharper, by about 25 percent, from about $11.6 million this year, they said. In Cook County, advocacy groups would have to cut staff and serve 3,500 fewer people, said Dawn Dalton, executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Network, at a news conference Monday in downtown Chicago. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and U.S.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) joined the advocates and pledged to fight for the funding. Domestic abuse foes pan U.S. budget cuts ILLINOIS Chicago police were questioning three men Monday in the armed robbery of two female Northwestern University students on the Evanston campus Sunday morning, NU officials said. The students were walking near Bobb Hall at 2305 Sheridan Rd.

at 4:20 a.m. when they were approached by two men who displayed a handgun and demanded their purses, NU officials said. One of the students gave themen her purse, but as the other started to do so, the purse strap broke and the men fled with only one purse. Thewomen were not hurt. unusual in that the robbery was on said Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations at NU.

Chicago police stopped a vehicle on the North Side a few hours later and inside found two BB guns, NU officials said. They said the officers noticed that two of the three men in the vehicle matched descriptions of the suspects in the Evanston robbery. Charges were pending Monday, NU officials said. 3 being questioned in robbery at NU CHICAGO Abreak in a gas main in Evanston on Monday kept a mile- long stretch of Oakton Street between Dodge Avenue and McCormick Boulevard closed for several hours, officials said. The natural gas leak began about 11 a.m., when a contractor doing excavation work in the 2400 block of Oakton broke the main, according to a city news release.

Evanston Fire Department officials and NICOR representatives were called to the scene. Residents within a six-block radius of the main break were advised to keep their doors and windows closed, officials said, as natural gas can cause dizziness and headaches. Oakton Street reopens after gas-line accident EVANSTON By Vikki Ortiz TRIBUNE REPORTER A Streamwood woman who chased her 6-year-old son around their home with a knife and stabbed him several timeslast year was found not guiltyby reason of insanity, a judge ruled Monday. Alicija G. Makowska, 43, was ordered to remain in jail while awaiting a psychiatric evaluationafter Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas P.

FecorettaJr. acquitted her of charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery of a child. The boy, now 7, survived and isin the custody of his father. is something that needed to attorney, Steven Kozicki, said of the ruling at the Rolling Meadows branchcourt- house. was the mental disorder that she suffered from that caused her to do this.

It was not her free In finding Makowska not guilty by reason of ruled that she committed the actions for which she was accused on May 16 and 17. The first night, Makowska was homewith her son when she chased him with a knife, stabbing him in the leg. When the boy tried to grab the knife, he cut his hand, a prosecutor said. The next morning, Ma- kowska stabbed her son twice in the back as he lay in his bunk bed, according to testimony. husband, Tomasz, said he returned home May 17 to find his son sleeping in the bed with bandages on his back.

His wife stood nearby, shaking and asking what had happened, he testified. Alicija Makowska had a history of mental illness and was not taking her medicationat the time of the incidents. She had asked her husband to hide the knives in the home weeks prior to the incident, which he did. But he testified he brought them back into the house shortly before the stabbing because he needed them in the kitchen. The prosecution argued that Ma- kowska knew what she was doing when she stabbed the boybecause she attempted to treat his wounds and made comments to police about being scared about what would happen to her.

The boy years old when he had to undergo a nightmare that no child should have to said Assistant Atty. Mike Andre. But the judge agreed with the testimony of forensic psychiatrist Jonathan Kelly, who said he found Makowska to have a mental disorder which left her unable to understand her actions. Fecoretta will decide in May how and where Makowska should receive psychiatric treatment. Mom acquitted in stabbing Streamwood woman found not guilty by reason of insanity By Matthew Walberg and Erika Slife TRIBUNE REPORTERS Lisa husband and his attorneys were in court Monday to reclaim a car that was seized during the investigation into the Plainfield disappearance and to try to stop her parents from seeking visitation rights with their grandchildren.

Will County Judge Richard Schoenstedt allowed Craig Stebic, 42, to pick up his 2004 Saturn Ion from Plainfield police Monday after he agreed to waive any right to dispute the validity of photos of his car or evidence gleaned from it if used in a future case against him. Meanwhile, in a courtroom one floor below, his attorneyDion Davi unsuccessfully argued that Judge Robert Brumund should reconsider a prior ruling in a petition by Steb- in-laws to pursue visitation rights with the two children, ages 11 and 13. The next hearing is scheduled for April 18. Lisa Stebic was 37 when she vanished from the Plainfield home April 30, 2007. She and her husband had begun divorce proceedings before her disappearance.

Plainfield police have called her husband the focus of their investigation and say they believe Lisa is probably dead. No charges have been filed in the case. In May, authorities executed a search warrant at the Stebic home, seizing the Saturn, a 2002 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck and 24 firearms. In February, attorneyGeorge Lenardfiled a motion asking Schoenstedt to order authorities to return his property, saying they had more than enough time to examine the items and were depriving his client of the right to his property. Prosecutors agreed to give up the Saturn but continue to fight the return of the truck and firearms.

Schoenstedt is expected to rule April 24 on whether the remaining items should be returned. agreement to reclaim his Saturn does not prohibit him from challenging the relevance of any evidence found there. Lisa parents, Lawrence and Judith Ruttenberg, and grand- parentsMilton and Charlotte Rut- tenbergfiled a petition in November asking the court to appoint a counselor to meet with them and the children. Stebic has said he will allow her family to visit with the children under his supervision. said Melanie Greenberg, Lisa cousin and family spokeswoman, who was at court Monday.

taking so long. about grandparents and great- grandparents wanting to see those Davi said the Stebic children have not seen their grandparents, who live in Florida, in years, and their great-grandparents, who live in Wheeling, since last summer. He would not say why the children have not seen them in so long, adding the facts would come out in court. Lisa family will observe the anniversary of her disappearance with a fundraiser walk in Plainfield on April 27. Stebic reclaims 1 of his vehicles Tribune photo by Chuck Berman Craig Stebic (right) of Plainfield and his attorney George Lenard leave the Will County Courthouse in Joliet on Monday after a judge ruled that Stebic could get back his car.

wife, Lisa, was last seen April 30, 2007. Child-visitation dispute with parents goes on McCauley, according to court records. She also had an order of protection against him filed in that same month. He tried to file an order of protection against her in response, but the order was not granted, the records show. Martinez was supposed to go to trial on the misdemeanor battery case April 17, according to records.

McCauley, who was identified by the Cook County medical office as Mercedes, but who friends and court records identified as Mersaides, died of multiple gunshot wounds and her death was ruled a homicide, the office said. Witnesses told friends Martinez waited for McCauley outside the church, which is located in the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 Green and drove up to her as she and another person got into a vehicle minutes after the service, according to afamily friend. Without saying a word, Martinez shot McCauleythree times and drove away, according to the family friend. Tribune reporter Steve Schmadeke contributed to this report. By Angela Rozas TRIBUNE REPORTER The man who apparently killed his ex-girlfriend this weekend and then took his own life was set to go to trial in a domestic-battery case involving the woman, who also had an order of protection against him, according to court records.

MersaidesMcCauley, 22, was shot to death about 8:40 p.m. allegedly by Glenford Martinez, 35, near West Chicago Avenue and North Green Street after she attended church services at City Church, police and church officials said. Police said Martinez shot McCauley outside the church and then fled in a car. Martinez, 35, was found by police about 9:30 p.m. with a self-inflicted bullet wound at East 58th Street and South Lake Shore Drive.

He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died. A gun he apparently used to shoot himself and possibly McCauley was recovered by police in the lake near where Martinez fell, police said. Martinezof the 6300 block of South Ingleside Avenuewas charged in November with misdemeanor domestic battery against Police say deaths were murder and suicide By Tina Shah TRIBUNE REPORTER Albert Vaughn was the neighborhood guardian, the older teenager who would play ball with the younger kids and try to keep them safe from trouble, friends said. he was guilty of anything, he was guilty of always protecting these said Trualanda Fields, a neighborhood mother who was among the 50 people who gathered Monday night on South Throop Street to pay tribute to the 18-year- old they called Albert. Vaughn was beaten to death with a baseball bat at the same spot Saturday night after a party held to give kids a place to escape the violence in their neighborhood.

is a jungle we live Fields said. trying to Earlier Monday, a 22-year-old man on parole for a weapons conviction was accused of killing Vaughn. Nathaniel Tucker of the 1500 block of West 72nd Street was charged with one count of first-degree murder. Police chased Tucker after the incident and arrested him in a building on the 7000 block of South Throop, less than a block from the scene of the fight. Records show Tucker is on parole for a 2005 conviction for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

He was sentenced to 3 years in prison in that case, and his parole was scheduled to end in June 2009, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Witnesses said Vaughn was killed in front of a crowd of people, including police responding to the fight. In the chaos, somebody hit Vaughn twice in the head with a metal bat, witnesses said. Tribune reporters Jason Meisner and Azam Ahmed contributed to this report. Tribune photo by Terrence Antonio James Albert Vaughn Jr.

is mourned at a vigil Monday by friends and family including his father, Albert Vaughn Sr. (left), and sister Amanda. Neighborhood pays tribute to teen beaten to death Nathaniel Tucker, 22, is charged with one count of first-degree murder. A Sauk Village man who joined the Army after graduating from Bloom Trail High School last year was killed, apparently by sniper fire, while guarding a post in Iraq over the weekend. Pfc.

Shane Penley, 19, died at Patrol Base Copper, Iraq, of wounds suffered while on duty at a guard post Sunday, according to the Department of Defense. The Army said the incident is under investigation and could not provide further details. Friends said military officials told the family that Penley was fatally wounded by sniper fire. Neighbors near his home in the 22200 block of Brookwood Drive said Penley attended Bloom Trail, in Chicago Heights, and joined up in June right after graduating. Renee Caminker said Penley rooted for the Chicago Bears.

Penley, who was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division out of Ft. Campbell, last spoke with his family Saturday, Caminker said. Penley is survived by his parents and three older sisters. Sauk Village soldier is killed in Iraq Product: CTMETRO PubDate: 04-08-2008 Zone: Edition: HD Page: METROP3-3 User: dabrown Time: Color:.