Trial opens for Dolton man charged in Hammond apartment double slaying

A trial began Monday for a man accused of a shooting that left two people dead at a Hammond apartment.

Marvin “Geno” Clark, 33, of Dolton, Illinois, is charged with four counts of murder and three counts of burglary. Two of these murders involve burglary.

The victims – Gary Shanklin, 23, of East Chicago, and Montelle “Monty” Lang, 29, of Chicago – were found shot to death at the bottom of a stairwell. Hammond police were called around 3:30 a.m. May 18 to Renaissance Towers in the 500 block of Michigan Street.

A woman said Anthoney “Mainski” Smothers – one of Clark’s co-defendants and her former boyfriend – was very drunk and arguing with her elsewhere when she heard gunshots.

Police learned that Smothers was on the phone with the woman when Lang, her new boyfriend, strangled her a week earlier in front of at least one of their children.

The night of the murders, Smothers called the woman, appearing drunk, to tell her he would come over. He showed up with Clark and co-defendant Daniel “Danny” Harmon.

Shanklin was friends with Lang – they stopped by after a party.

When Smothers’ ex-girlfriend wouldn’t let them in, the men removed a screen and climbed through the living room window. Lang and Shanklin started arguing with them.

The woman told the victims to go out her front door while she spoke with Smothers. He followed the woman out of her unit as they argued on the east side of the building. The woman heard gunshots. The two men who accompanied him, then Smothers, fled.

“He’s dead,” Harmon said as he left.

In opening statements Monday, Assistant District Attorney Brad Carter argued that the trio — Smothers, Clark and Harmon — had a plan to make sure the other men didn’t escape.

Their deaths were a “cold execution” and “deliberate,” he said.

That night, Smothers called his ex-girlfriend several times, seeking a confrontation with Lang, Carter said. Clark was there in the same clothes from the bar, now with a ski mask.

When they arrived, the men separated.

Carter acknowledged there was no live camera footage of the shooting.

A video camera located outside the apartments captured a license plate as the vehicle arrived. Cellphone location data and license plate readers also put the men at the scene, he said.

The victims were hit by a “barrage of bullets”, with Lang being hit twice in the head and abdomen, while Shanklin was hit nine times. Ballistics tests showed two weapons were used, indicating there were two potential shooters.

Defense attorney John Cantrell argued that his client, Clark, was not there.

That night, Smothers took the other two men from a bar to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and they fought, which was typical of their volatile relationship, he told jurors.

Clark did not have “a dog in the fight” and left before the shooting.

He argued the men had not gone through the window because no DNA or “pry marks” had been found.

Instead, the men knocked on the apartment door and the woman went out into the hallway, closing the door behind her. When the former couple got into a physical fight, Clark left, the attorney said.

He had “no idea” who shot the men.

Assistant District Attorney Milana Petersen played a few 911 calls.

Hammond Police Officer Elias Guido said four young children were huddled together in the bedroom of the woman’s apartment, about seven feet from the two bodies in the hallway. Carter previously said three were the woman’s children.

“I’m scared,” one child said, on the body camera footage, “…of the mouse.”

“Don’t worry,” the officer said. “We’ll take care of the mouse for you.”

Investigators identified a silver Chevrolet SUV in the parking lot just before the shooting. They traced the origin of Harmon’s parent.

He told police the three were drinking at a Burnham, Illinois bar, Brown Jug, that evening. They went to the ex-girlfriend’s apartment. Harmon claimed he wasn’t driving, didn’t know what was going to happen and was outside when the shooting happened.

Investigators cast doubt on his story.

The night of the murders, Smothers pulled out a gun and pointed it at the woman. The two men along with Smothers stopped Shanklin and Lang from leaving.

Smothers handed the gun to Harmon so he could freely attack the woman. She led Smothers outside the apartment in an attempt to “deescalate” the confrontation just before the shooting.

Shanklin was acquitted in January 2025 of the Oct. 13, 2021, deaths of Nalisha D. Martin, 43, of Hammond, and Christopher Burks, 52, of Chicago. The case had nothing to do with his death.

The cases of Clark’s two co-defendants are ongoing. Harmon’s next hearing will be Wednesday, while Smothers’s will be March 12.

Post-Tribune archives contributed.

mcolias@post-trib.com