Boy, 13, guilty in dice game murder

[Pedro56]

Boy, 13, guilty in dice game murder
June 9, 2006

BY STEFANO ESPOSITO

The sixth-grader bent his slender neck forward, clasped his fingers together and closed his eyes.

If it was a prayer, it was cut short. Seconds later, Juvenile Court Judge Rodney Brooks found the 13-year-old guilty of the execution-style murder of 26-year-old Deon McGary during a street dice game on the Far South Side last November. The boy fired four times, moving in on his victim, who "writhed in pain," prosecutors said.

The youth, wearing an enormously baggy peach-and-green striped shirt, was quickly led away in handcuffs.

Without elaborating, Brooks said he did not believe the youth, who testified Thursday that he fired in self-defense when he saw McGary hold a gun to the head of the boy's cousin.

The boy, who frequently had to be told to speak louder and more slowly, mumbled his way through about 30 minutes of testimony Thursday.

"I feared for my life," the youth said at one point. "I thought I was gonna die."

In the hours before the shooting, the boy was playing video games at a cousin's house on the Far South Side, he testified. He then went outside with his cousin, who joined a street dice game. The boy said that at one point during the dice game, McGary arrived and announced, "This is a stick up. Anybody move, and I'll kill you."

The boy said he didn't know what else to do, so he shot McGary.

When one of the defense attorneys, Rajeev Bajaj, asked the boy why he was carrying a gun that night, the boy replied indifferently: "I thought it would be cool."

In between responses, the boy lowered his head and stared down at the top of the witness stand, as though trying to avoid the eyes of those in the courtroom.

Could be held until 21st birthday



Under questioning by Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Angela Petrone, the boy repeatedly shook his head and said he couldn't recall many of the events of that November night. Petrone keyed in on the boy's claim that he fired in self defense.

"After you shot the fourth time, were you in danger of being killed?" Petrone asked the boy.

"Yes," he replied.

Petrone asked the boy if McGary, also known as "Black," ever pointed a gun at him.

"I don't know," the boy said.

Prosecutors say the self-defense claim is nonsense. During the boy's trial, they brought in five witnesses who said they saw McGary fighting with the boy's cousin but never saw McGary with a gun. The boy's attorneys said the witnesses lied -- because they're all friends of McGary.

Moments after his testimony, the boy stepped out of the courtroom, stretched out face down on a wooden bench and closed his eyes.

Sentencing is set for July 12. He faces a minimum of five years in juvenile detention and could be locked up until his 21st birthday, prosecutors said.

[TheOldRhino]

He faces a minimum of five years in juvenile detention and could be locked up until his 21st birthday, prosecutors said.

Oh no, anything but that...