Bob Cook expected to see the man accused of killing his police officer brother nearly nine years ago stand trial this week, but delays have pushed the start to October and have left his family waiting a bit longer for justice.
“In the end, all we’re worried about is a conviction,” Cook said.
Jury selection, which had been scheduled for Tuesday, now is expected to start next month in the trial of Jemetric Nicholson, a felon accused of slaying Metra police Officer Thomas Cook while he sat in his patrol car.
The 28-year-old Harvey man is accused of shooting Cook in the back of the head on Sept. 27, 2006. He faces more than 60 counts of murder, among other things, and is already serving a 50-year sentence at Stateville Correctional Center for prior convictions that include attempted murder.
More Top Picks Best Solar Watches For Men
At least two witnesses who were scheduled to testify appeared briefly Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Judge Frank Zelezinski’s Markham courtroom before the case was continued. Prosecutors said both they and Nicholson’s defense need more time before the trial can start, but declined to speak about what had caused the delay.
Cook, a father of two and a veteran police officer from unincorporated Dyer, Ind., was sitting in a Metra police car near the 147th Street train station in Harvey when he was shot twice in the back of the head. The 43-year-old officer had been working overtime as part of an effort to investigate robberies at the station. Cook had been with Metra police since 2003 and had served 10 years with the Riverdale Police Department.
He is the first Metra police officer to be killed in the line of duty.
Cook is survived by his wife, Pam, and two children, Jimmy and Jessica. His father, Charles, was chief of Riverdale police for more than two decades.
Nicholson was 23 when the state’s attorney’s office charged him in March 2010 with Cook’s slaying, and 19 when the officer was killed.
Prosecutors in 2010 said Nicholson and his accomplice Jeremy Lloyd planned the “brutal, coldblooded murder” in order to steal Cook’s gun, after the pair allegedly shot at a rival gang the morning before the officer was killed. The two had lost their weapons when Harvey police chased them after a shootout with officers, and had planned to steal Cook’s .357-caliber service revolver in an armed robbery, prosecutors said.
Lloyd pleaded guilty in October 2010 to murder for his role as a lookout in Cook’s slaying. He also pleaded guilty to attempted murder for his part in the shooting with cops earlier that day.
In April, prosecutors filed a motion to seek a natural life sentence against Nicholson, according to court records. Nicholson pleaded not guilty in December 2010.
He remains in Illinois Department of Corrections custody pending the start of the trial.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter.