Reputed gang boss has court hearing

A Streator-connected Chicago man, charged with 10 gang murders, had a court hearing Thursday.

Romeo Blackman, 22, was charged in October with heading a street gang in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood that murdered 10 people between January 2014 and July 2016. One of the murders was of a Streator man, Gerald Bumper.

At a hearing Thursday in Chicago federal court, procedural matters were ironed out for Blackman and his three codefendants, Terrance Smith, Jolicious Turman and Nathaniel McElroy. Another hearing was set for Wednesday, March 13. Trial is not yet scheduled.

Blackman is also charged in federal court with stealing guns from a South Streator gun shop in June 2016. In that case, Blackman is slated for a pretrial hearing Friday, March 8, with trial Monday, March 18.

Further, Blackman is awaiting sentencing in La Salle County Circuit Court, for illegally possessing a gun and having heroin on Aug. 5, 2016, in Streator. He has been in custody since that date.