Teen Charged In Slaying

 A 17-year-old boy used a marijuana purchase as a ruse to get close enough to a 16-year-old boy to shoot him six times in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side earlier this week, prosecutors said today. Joel Batalla, 17, is charged with the killing of Angel Cano, 16, on Tuesday in the 4300 block of South Paulina Street. Batalla was ordered held without bail in a hearing midday today in Cook County Central Bond Court. Cano, of the 2200 block of West 50th Place, was shot several times on Tuesday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 5:35 p.m. Batalla is a member of the Latin Saints and Cano was a member of the Satan Disciples, according to Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Amanda Pillsbury. Cano arranged to buy marijuana from Batalla and another person, and Batalla at some point learned Cano was part of a rival gang, prosecutors said. When Cano met Batalla to buy the marijuana about 5:20 p.m. Tuesday, Batalla led him and two other people through an alley and into a gangway near Paulina, where Batalla told them to wait. Batalla walked north out of the alley, then returned about 10 minutes later, this time walking from the south after apparently having circled the block. Batalla sent one of the two other people to a store to buy Blunts--small cigars used to wrap marijuana--and the fourth person began to talk to Cano about the weather, telling him that it was "a beautiful day to smoke." "It's a beautiful day to get smoked," Batalla said, then pulled out a gun and shot Cano in the torso, prosecutors said. When Cano slumped over, Batalla shot Cano five more times in the head, prosecutors said. Batalla, who lives in the 2600 block of South Hillock Avenue in the Bridgeport neighborhood, ran away to a home on Paulina Street, and after wrapping the gun in his shirt and the shirt of one of the witnesses to the shooting, gave the gun to another. Batalla has a pending aggravated unlawful use of a weapon case pending in Juvenile Court, prosecutors said. Batalla's next court date was not immediately available. chicagobreaking@tribune.com Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking Copyright © 2013 Chicago Tribune Company, LLC

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