A lawyer for reputed Four Corner Hustlers kingpin Labar Spann told a federal jury Tuesday the racketeering charges alleging Spann oversaw robberies, extortion and murder over two decades were “a fiction of the prosecution.”

       Spann, 44, was charged in a sweeping 2017 indictment alleging he conspired with others to commit six gangland murders from 2000 to 2003, including the infamous contract killing of Latin Kings boss Rudy “Kato” Rangel.

       Prosecutors alleged Spann took over the reins of the gang after he was shot and paralyzed in 1999, using murder to elevate the gang’s reputation for ruthlessness as well as his own street cred.

       But in his closing argument to jurors on Tuesday, defense attorney Steven Shobat said that Spann was just like any other drug dealer or hustler trying to make a buck on the West Side, not some powerful boss who called the shots.

       “They dealt with everybody,” Shobat said. “Each man was for himself. ... The idea that the Four Corner Hustlers is the enterprise through which all this criminal activity took place really is a fiction of the prosecution.”

       Shobat said the parade of cooperating witnesses who testified against Spann, many of whom were granted plea deals with prosecutors in hopes of reducing their own sentences, had told multiple lies to investigators in the past and lied again on the witness stand.

       “They raise their right hands and swear to tell the truth and then they lie,” Shobat said. “You gotta ask yourself, what is so magical that they would now stop lying and suddenly start telling the truth? Of course there is nothing magical about it. People are what they are, they do what they do.”

       Shobat is expected to wrap up his argument Tuesday afternoon, followed by a rebuttal from prosecutors. It’s likely the jury would begin deliberations on Wednesday.

       Over eight weeks of testimony, jurors heard graphic details of how Spann allegedly plotted and, in some cases, participated in the six slayings charged in the indictment. A total of 18 witnesses identified Spann as the leader of the Four Corner Hustlers.

       In a risky move, Spann took the witness stand in his own defense last week and repeatedly admitted he was an old-school “gangster” whom others turned to for help and treated with respect.

       But he denied participation in any of the killings. As his attorney took him one by one through the charges in the indictment, Spann grew louder in his denials, yelling, “No — hell no! None of that (expletive),” when asked if he was responsible for the 2000 slaying of Maximillion McDaniel.

       He testified similarly when asked about Rangel’s killing, saying he had no idea who the Latin Kings boss even was when he heard Rangel had been shot.

       In his closing argument Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Storino said many of the crimes committed by Spann were in furtherance of gang’s reputation for ruthlessness. He reminded jurors of the reluctant testimony of some of the cooperators, noting how you could see the fear “in the faces of the witnesses.”

       “The point was to keep people in fear,” Storino said.

       At one point, Storino put up on a large screen in the courtroom an Instagram post from one of Spann’s associates featuring an image of Spann and a not-so-subtle threat to rivals.

       “IF I PUT #BRAMAN ON YOUR (expletive), THAN YOU #DEAD, 4REAL” the post by Rontrell Turnipseed read. “We got #Killers that #Kill.”

       Storino also called Spann’s testimony that he was a loner “preposterous,” pointing to a 2012 wiretapped conversation in which Spann was caught giving a veritable “TED Talk” on his leadership style.

       “He is a smart, ruthless and manipulative gang leader,” Storino told the jury. “He is a person who kills, he robs, he extorts and intimidates others, all in furtherance of his gang the Four Corner Hustlers. And he has done it for over two decades.”

       Spann faces mandatory life in prison if convicted.

       jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

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