Pam Cook broke down in tears outside of a Cook County courtroom Wednesday after seeing for the first time photos of her husband found shot to death inside his police squad car.
Twenty-eight-year-old Jemetric Nicholson is charged with the first-degree murder of Thomas Cook, a 43-year-old veteran police officer killed while on special detail near the Harvey Metra station on 147th Street.
Cook’s wife and other family members teared up as an Illinois State Police crime scene investigator explained photos taken at the scene on Sept. 27, 2006, of the two bullet holes near the back of the officer’s head and of his empty holster. Cook’s service weapon was not found at the scene.
Nicholson faces more than 60 counts of murder in Cook’s death. He already is serving consecutive sentences in Stateville Correctional Center on convictions that include attempted murder and wouldn’t eligible for parole until 2145. 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 are seeking a natural life sentence against Nicholson, according to court records.
Cook, the first Metra police officer to be killed in the line of duty, had been with Metra police since 2003 and had served a decade with the Riverdale Police Department. Prosecutors say the father of two was shot twice at close range in the back of the head while sitting in a Metra police car parked in a field near the Metra station. Cook, who was from unincorporated Dyer, Ind., was part of a coordinated effort to investigative armed robberies in the area and was working overtime when he was killed.
Wednesday marked the second day of Nicholson’s trial. He has pleaded not guilty to the first degree murder of Cook. No physical evidence exists tying him to the murder, and key witness Jeremy Lloyd’s testimony on Tuesday contradicts earlier comments he made to investigators, Nicholson’s defense contends.
A Cook County jury heard testimony from state police Master Sgt. Heather Poerio, who said stippling near the bullet wounds around Cook’s ear indicated that he was shot from no more than 16 inches away. She told jurors the driver’s side window of the squad was down about 3 1/2 inches when she processed the crime scene.
Poerio said it was an important case that involved “one of our own.”
The jury also heard from two witnesses who said they heard two gunshots and, later, approached Cook’s squad car.
Antoine Lee and Timothy Hoye were shooting dice at Lee’s grandparent’s house the night the officer was killed, according to their testimony.
The men initially dismissed the shots because they would hear “shots every day around that time,” Lee said. Lee had seen the squad car earlier that evening, he told the jury, and about an hour after the shots walked near it while calling out to Cook. The two men went back to Lee’s family after realizing the officer was likely dead, and the police were called.
The prosecution played a video of Lee recorded several days after the murder in which he told investigators and a Cook County assistant state’s attorney he saw a man who wasn’t Nicholson near the squad car. Lee said Wednesday he was “persuaded” by the police in the video to identity a particular man, even though he had not been able to see anyone from his grandparent’s backyard when the shots rang out.
Nicholson’s defense questioned Lee about how investigators allegedly were able to convince him to give make the false statement.
“Nothing at all,” Lee said. “I was 18 years old. All they had to do was say a word.”
The trial is expected to continue through Friday.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
More Top Picks Countertop Ovens