Introducing ‘Motive’: a podcast from the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ

Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Frank Main, Motive tells the story of a wrongfully convicted teen turned self-appointed street gang leader.

In 2014, I became captivated by the story of Thaddeus “TJ” Jimenez. I’d heard that the Chicago Police Department suspected he was firing guns out of luxury cars. They thought he was behind a spike in violence on the West Side of Chicago. Even the mayor was briefed about him.

That was especially interesting to me because TJ was a big story when he was awarded $25 million in a wrongful conviction lawsuit in 2012.

He had spent 16 years in prison for a murder he swore he didn’t commit. A judge freed him, he sued the city and he persuaded a federal jury that he should receive more than $2 million in compensation for every one of the years he spent behind bars.

By 2014, though, it was becoming clear to me that this story wasn’t going to have a fairytale ending. I started documenting TJ’s troubles with the law. And in May 2015, he did the unthinkable: he shot a man while his friend recorded everything on video.

TJ is now back behind bars, serving a federal prison sentence for illegal gun possession. He’s awaiting trial in Cook County Circuit Court for shooting that man.

This podcast is my attempt to understand it all – why TJ was arrested for murder at age 13, what he went through in prison, and how his tragic background may have guided his decisions after he became a multimillionaire.

Why did it all go so wrong?

And what does it mean for the rest of us?

Motive debuts Sept. 20 on WBEZ.org and on iTunes.

Frank Main is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times.