He threw a single punch at Derrion Albert.
CHICAGO (AP) — He threw a single punch at Derrion Albert.
But that punch in the midst of an attack by an angry mob that would kick, punch, stomp and slam Albert over the head with a board before he was dragged away and rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead was enough to convince a jury to convict a 15-year-old boy of first-degree murder.
After a little more than a half hour, the jury came back Wednesday with the verdict that sent the teen sprawling back into his chair and an aunt rushing from the courtroom screaming "Oh lord, oh Lord."
It was a stunningly quick end to the latest chapter of a story that began in September 2009 when hours after the 16-year-old honor student died video taken of the brawl on the city’s South Side was shown around the nation and beyond.
The teen was the first of five suspects to stand trial in the slaying of Albert, a Fenger High School student.
The other four suspects, all charged as adults, have yet to stand trial. The second trial, this one of the young man who is accused of jumping on Albert’s head with both feet as Albert lay bleeding and helpless on the ground, is set to begin Jan. 7.
Eleven days later, the teen who was convicted Wednesday is set to return to court for sentencing. His attorney, Richard Kloak, said he can be locked up until his 21st birthday. But, he said, if he commits any offense between now and then, even an offense as minor as marijuana possession, he could be sentenced to 20 to 60 years in state prison.
Kloak said he planned to appeal, that he believes that the jury should have been allowed to consider whether the youth was guilty of something other than first-degree murder.
"I thought if I could give them a lesser crime that was proportionate to what he had done, it would be more palatable, but I didn’t get to do that," he said.
During the two-day trial, prosecutors contended the then-14-year-old high school freshman was part of the mob that pummeled Albert with fists and feet, stomped on his head and struck him on the back of the head with a board, killing him.
They presented witnesses who testified to seeing the boy grab a board and swing it, though not at Albert — suggesting the testimony and the video itself bolstered their contention that the boy did not just briefly get caught up in a melee that he had nothing to do with, but an active participant in the brawl.
The beating was captured on cell phone video and broadcast widely, providing the most vivid example of escalating violence that in a six-month period claimed the lives of more than 20 Chicago public school students. Albert’s death prompted President Barack Obama to send U.S. Attorney Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to the city to discuss ways to end the violence.
The court was crowded with friends of both Albert and the defendant. Albert’s mother wore a T-shirt with his picture. Some people left the court in tears Tuesday, the trial’s first day, as prosecutors showed the video, sometimes in slow motion.
Prosecutors said the youth’s punch was thrown so hard that Albert wasn’t even able to put his hands up to break his fall, setting in motion Albert’s death.
"The defendant, with that punch, signed Derrion Albert’s death certificate," said Assistant State’s Attorney Matthew Howroyd. The defendant "put Derrion in a position he could never recover from."
A pathologist who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Hilary McElligot, said it was impossible to tell which of the many blows killed him, but they all contributed to his death.
Kloak, who did not call a single witness, insisted that his client’s act "did not cause the death."
"He didn’t stomp anybody, hit anyone with a stick or hit anyone on the ground," Kloak argued. "He may be guilty of something else, (but) he is not guilty of first-degree murder."
After Albert’s death, Mayor Richard Daley proposed initiatives including the deployment of more police officers to work in three-hour overtime shifts coinciding with school dismissal times, and beefed up the police presence at public transportation stops where students congregate.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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