A Cook County jury will resume deliberations Wednesday in the trial of a felon accused of murdering a Metra police officer nine years ago in Harvey.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Circuit Court Judge Frank Zelezinski sent jurors home after they were unable to reach a unanimous decision in two votes Tuesday. They judge instructed them not to discuss the case among themselves or with others. The jury began deliberating at 4 p.m.
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Jemetric Nicholson, 28, is charged with first-degree murder in the September 2006 shooting death of Thomas Cook, a father of two, as he sat in his police car while on a special detail investigating a rash of armed robberies near the 147th Street Metra station. Cook, 43, is the first Metra officer to be killed in the line of duty.
Cook’s wife, Pam, and their children, Jessica and Jimmy, were at the courthouse in Markham on Tuesday for closing arguments.
Prosecutors told the jury that Nicholson and another man were planning to rob people on the night of Cook’s death.
A key witness for the state was that other man, Jeremy Lloyd, who testified as part of a plea agreement that he was looking to commit armed robberies with Nicholson when they came upon Cook’s marked car.
Lloyd said he watched as Nicholson raised a gun toward the open driver’s side window of Cook’s car and heard two shots as he turned away and fled.
There was no physical evidence linking Nicholson to the killing, but prosecutors told the jury that testimony and circumstantial evidence — such as Nicholson telling police that he often left guns that he used in Robbins, where Cook’s service weapon was found — were enough to convict Nicholson.
The defense emphasized the lack of physical evidence against him and said the stories that supposed eyewitnesses gave over the years changed or that they flat-out lied.
Jurors asked during deliberations to review video recordings of Nicholson and Lloyd being interrogated separately by police in October 2006.
Nicholson is serving consecutive sentences at Stateville Correctional Center on charges that include attempted murder. He won’t be eligible for parole until 2145.
Police officers filled Zelezinski’s courtroom Tuesday morning for the trial that, as one witness from the Illinois State Police crime lab testified during the trial, involved “one of their own.”
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.