Times Staff Report

A Cook County judge on Wednesday denied bond for two south suburban men charged in Saturday's killing of a 16-year-old Calumet City girl.

The judge set bond for four others who face charges in connection with the crime.

Kevin Kerby, 21, of Calumet City, and Miguelangel Garcia, 23, of Harvey, remain jailed without bond, Cook County state's attorney's office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said.

They each face first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder charges in the killing of Melody J. Elias, who died after she was shot in the chest while sitting in a parked vehicle about 1:30 a.m. Saturday in the 700 block of Newell Avenue.

Bond was set at $2 million Wednesday on the same charges against Lewis Crenshaw, 18, of Calumet City, and Oscar Chaves, 20, of Calumet City.

Bond was set at $1 million on the same charges against Llewellyn Peed, 19, of Hammond, and Malaquies Guttierez, 17, of Calumet City.

All six are scheduled to appear Dec. 19 in Cook County court in Markham for a preliminary hearing, Cook County state's attorney's office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said.

A seventh defendant, Albert Redmond, 18, of Dolton, is scheduled to appear today in Markham for a bond hearing.

A couple of days before the shooting, Kerby's car was set on fire outside of his Calumet City home, prosecutors said.

Kerby gathered fellow Latin King gang members and said he wanted to shoot some Latin Dragons gang member, as he held them responsible, authorities said.

The night of the shooting, the group drove in four separate cars when one of the men saw a car thought to be driven by a member of the Latin Dragons, authorities said.

With one of the four cars parked in a nearby alley as a lookout, the three others boxed in a car driven by 19-year-old Daniel J. Witting, who was with Elias, a student at Thornton Fractional North High School in Calumet City, prosecutors said.

At that point, Kerby jumped out of the car and began shouting, "I'm gonna kill you ... dragon killer, dragon killer, (expletive)," prosecutors said.

As another man tried to pull Elias out of the car, Witting backed in to the car behind him, prosecutors said.

At that point, Garcia got out of a car, pulled a semiautomatic pistol and shot several times at the passenger side of Witting's car, prosecutors said. As Witting managed to pull around the cars and flee, Garcia continued to shoot, knocking out the rear windshield, authorities said..

Witting, who investigators said may have been peripherally involved with gangs at some point, then drove Elias to St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers in Hammond, where Elias was pronounced dead. Witting underwent surgery for gunshot wounds to both hands.