7 charged in Chicago beating deaths

? Authorities charged seven people Saturday with first-degree murder for the deaths of two men who were stomped and beaten with bricks and stones by a mob after a traffic accident.

Each also was charged with felony murder and other counts in the deaths of Jack Moore, 62, and Anthony Stuckey, 49, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said.

Robert Tucker, 20, and Antonio Fort, 16, were ordered held without bond. The others Henry Lawrence, 47, his 43-year-old brother, Roosevelt, Lamont Motes, 20, James Ousley, 31, and Ricky Lawson, 43 faced bond hearings Sunday, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said they could seek the death penalty for six defendants, but added that decision has not been made. Prosecutors said they were prohibited from seeking the death penalty for Fort because of his age.

Saturday’s hearing came four days after a mob pulled Moore and Stuckey from the van, which hurtled a curb and struck a group of people sitting on a stoop of a home in the Oakland neighborhood. Three women were hospitalized after the crash.

As the injured lay on the ground Tuesday night, the mob beat to death Moore, who was driving, and Stuckey with their hands, feet, bricks and stones, police said.

Tucker broke the driver-side window with his hands, punched Moore, pulled him out of the van and began to stomp on him, said Assistant State’s Atty. Megan Goldish.

She said Tucker gave a videotaped confession and had cuts on his arms that were likely caused by the broken window.

Fort, who was charged as an adult, allegedly helped pull Stuckey out of the van and kicked and beat him with a slab of concrete.

Fort’s lawyer, Lawrence Wolf Levin, said Fort planned to plead innocent.