Judge’s brother charged with killing sister, her husband
BY LAUREN FITZPATRICK AND CASEY TONER Sun-Times Media January 17, 2012 5:28PM
Mayor Dwight Welch talks about the arrest of Kenneth Rhodes as the suspect in the murders of Rhodes' sister and her husband during a press conference at the police department in Country Club Hills, IL on Tuesday January 17, 2012. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 19, 2012 8:19AM
The brother of a Cook County judge has been charged with murder in the shooting deaths Friday of his sister and her husband in their home in Country Club Hills, Mayor Dwight Welch said.
Kenneth Rhodes, 50, who was living with the couple, was charged with murdering Nathaniel Bracy, 64, and Pauline Betts-Bracy, 54, who were shot about 8 p.m. in their home in the 19300 block of Oakwood Avenue, Welch said.
Each suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to the county medical examiner’s office.
Welch said the shootings resulted from a dispute between Rhodes and Betts-Bracy over who owned the condominium where they lived.
Earlier Friday, the couple had filed a police report over a domestic dispute that day involving Rhodes, who has a criminal record.
Rhodes fled the condo after the shootings and was arrested Saturday, according to Welch, who would not say where he was arrested.
He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building in Chicago.
Rhodes is the brother of Circuit Court Judge James L. Rhodes, who is assigned to the county courthouse in Markham, Welch said.
Rhodes served a prison term in a 1989 case for possession of a controlled substance and was sentenced in September 2008 to 243 days in Cook County Jail for possession of cocaine, according to court records.
They indicated that he also pleaded guilty in September 2008 to possession of a controlled substance and served a prison term.
The lengths of the prison terms could not be determined.
In May 2010, Rhodes was sentenced to a year of conditional discharge and three days of community service for battery.
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