Nearly 10 years have passed since Cook County Judge Raymond Myles was gunned down in a botched robbery attempt outside his home on the South Side.
A West Side native and the oldest of 10 children, Myles was his family’s patriarch and a pillar of the Cook County judiciary.
During a hearing Monday ahead of his convicted killer’s sentencing, Myles’ closest relatives remembered him as a loving, attentive father and a diligent jurist “with a servant’s heart” who sought to help whoever he could.
The judge’s son, Raymond Myles Jr., recalled when he received the news of his father’s death while he was deployed with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.
The younger Myles rattled off several adjectives and accomplishments of his father’s, but “I knew him as ‘Dad.’”
“He passed down to me the wisdom, principles and values that his father had given to him,” Raymond Myles Jr. said. “I would give anything to have one more conversation with my father. I would give anything to hug him one more time and tell him how much I love him.”
Almost a decade since Myles’ passing, many relatives are still left to ask, “Why?”
“No one should be made to feel the kind of sorrow that my family has been made to feel,” Vernell Tibbs, Myles’ sister, said during the victim impact statement portion of the hearing. “I could empty the ocean with a thimble before I can understand why.”
“If I had a million tongues, I could not explain how important Judge Myles was to our family,” she added.
Myles Jr. and Tibbs were among about 30 relatives and friends of Myles who attended Monday’s sentencing hearing at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse in Bridgeview.
Earl Wilson, 54, was convicted earlier this year of murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and armed robbery in the April 10, 2017 shooting in the 9400 block of South Forest Avenue. Wilson’s co-defendant, Joshua Smith, pleaded guilty in 2024 to armed robbery and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
The trial unfolded at a branch courthouse in southwest suburban Bridgeview before DuPage County Judge Jeffrey McKay, who was appointed due to the potential for conflicts of interest if Myles’ fellow judges in Cook County were to hear the case.
The slaying, believed to be the first of a judge in more than three decades, shocked his colleagues in the local court system and resulted in a sweeping police investigation.
Myles and his girlfriend, Venita Parrish, went to the gym together each morning before going to work. That’s what they were doing the morning they were confronted before dawn by a gunman who took Parrish’s bag, believing it contained cash.
Parrish testified during Wilson’s trial that she had seen someone lurking around the home, and called 911.
“Please, hurry,” Parrish said on the recording of the 911 call, a portion of which was played in court again Monday. “Oh, my Lord, please hurry.”
She ran, then fell and started screaming, Parrish said. She was wounded by a shot to the leg during the robbery.
“He said, ‘B—-, shut up,’” she testified of Wilson.
Sentencing in the case was scheduled for mid-November. Prosecutors and Wilson’s attorney agreed that Wilson will receive life, though prosecutors are seeking an enhancement.
“He’s never going home again — ever — even if you give him the minimum,” Wilson’s attorney LaFanzo Palmer said Monday.
Another victim impact statement was delivered by retired Cook County Judge Nicholas Ford, a longtime colleague of Myles at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building.
“He was driven to do anything in his power to help these young people’s lives change for the better,” Ford said. “He could change lives for the better and he did so again and again. He provided a beacon of light in the lives of the young people before him. How can anyone possibly do anything more noble than that?”
Myles’ niece, Tamika Tibbs, remembered when, as a child, she earned straight A’s on her report card. Myles quickly nicknamed her “Miss A.”
“It gave me a sense of pride and encouraged me to continue to strive for excellence,” she said. “I would give anything to hear him call me ‘Miss A’ one more time.”
Before the hearing concluded, Wilson addressed the court to tearfully deny any involvement in the killing.
“I did not kill his father,” Wilson said in reference to Myles Jr. “I did not kill Mr. Myles.”
“Why would I want to take such an asset from my community?”
