A third man has been charged with murder in the slaying last month of Chicago Police Officer Thomas Wortham IV.
Marcus Floyd, 19, of the 3100 block of W. Lexington St., who has been hospitalized and in police custody since Wortham's death, was charged with felony murder in the shooting deaths of Wortham and Floyd's cousin Brian Floyd.
Brian Floyd, 20, was fatally shot while trying to steal Wortham's new motorcycle outside Wortham's parents' Chatham home.
Marcus Floyd also faces a charge of attempted armed robbery and discharge of a firearm. He was charged about 5 p.m. Sunday, after he regained consciousness, police said. He remains hospitalized, and there was no word on when he will appear in court for a bond hearing.
Already charged in Wortham's slaying and being held without bail are Paris McGee, 20, and Toyious Taylor, 29. Marcus Floyd has been hospitalized after being shot by either Wortham or his father in an exchange of gunfire after the four allegedly approached Wortham as he was leaving his parent's house after dinner.
Wortham, an Army National Guardsman who recently completed his second tour in Iraq, had gone to his parents' Chatham home for dinner May 19 on what prosecutors described as "a regular night."
Authorities say that as he prepared to leave around 11:30 p.m., Brian Floyd and Marcus Floyd approached Wortham and tried to steal his motorcycle.
When the officer's father, retired Police Sgt. Thomas Wortham III, saw the men approach, he yelled at them to leave his son alone, authorities said. Brian Floyd responded by shooting at the elder Wortham, Assistant State's Attorney Joe Cataldo said at McGee and Taylor's bond hearing last month.
In that moment of distraction, Wortham IV pulled out his own gun and identified himself as a police officer. He and Brian Floyd exchanged gunfire, during which Wortham was shot in the abdomen.
"That's when a regular night turned into a nightmare," Cataldo said.
Wortham's father rushed to a ground-floor bedroom, returned with a gun and saw Taylor and McGee pull up in a red car, authorities said. McGee, who was in the passenger's seat, flashed a handgun and yelled at his friends to get in the car, Cataldo said.
With Wortham lying in the street, his father opened fire on Brian Floyd and Marcus Floyd.
Taylor and McGee fled the scene in the getaway car, striking Wortham's body and dragging him roughly a quarter-mile, Cataldo said.
Wortham "survived two tours of duty in Iraq, but he couldn't survive dinner at his parents' home in our community," Cataldo said.
Brian Floyd was pronounced dead at the scene. Marcus Floyd was critically wounded and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
McGee turned himself in to police on the afternoon of May 20. Taylor was apprehended that night during a traffic stop.
Wortham's father identified both men as the getaway car's occupants in a police lineup, Cataldo said.
Records show that Marcus Floyd was arrested last year on a heroin possession charge, but the case was dismissed for lack of probable cause.
Taylor pleaded guilty in 2002 to drug charges and was sentenced to six years in prison, according to court records. Last year, he served several days in Cook County Jail for a misdemeanor conviction.
McGee is on probation for a 2009 weapons conviction, records show. There also is a misdemeanor illegal gambling charge pending against him.
While serving in Iraq, Wortham -- a three-year Chicago police officer -- led soldiers over dangerous routes and worked with his mother to get school supplies for Iraqi children. In Englewood, he policed an impoverished and at times desperate place on the busy night shift. And in Chatham, his neighborhood, he defended the safe and loving environment where he was raised against encroaching violence by leading a community group.
Wortham planned to marry Caitlin Waldhart, his girlfriend of six years. He wanted to be a father. After two tours in Iraq, he thought he'd return for another deployment, this time to Afghanistan.
And he also had plans to move closer to his parents' house.
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