A convicted gang member who said he beat up jailed R&B singer R Kelly in a Chicago cell in August has been sentenced to life in prison for a racketeering conviction that involved two 1999 murders.
A federal judge in Hammond, Indiana, sentenced Jeremiah Farmer, 39, on Tuesday during a hearing in which Farmer represented himself and appeared combative, at times raising his voice and frequently interrupting the judge.
Farmer, a Latin Kings street gang member, had faced a mandatory life sentence following his conviction last year on conspiracy to commit racketeering activity in a drug-related case that involved the killings of Marion Lowry, 74, and Harvey Siegers, 67.
Lowry and Siegers were beaten to death in June 1999 with a hammer at their Hammond business, Calumet Auto Rebuilders — a business where an indictment stated that employees "had repeatedly had conflicts with members of the Latin Kings", the Chicago Tribune reported.
