Five uniformed officers stood near George Guider as he testified Friday about driving around with Jemetric Nicholson less than 48 hours before it is alleged Nicholson shot and killed a Metra police officer.
Guider told a Cook County jury that more than nine years ago he saw 28-year-old Nicholson, who is accused of killing veteran Officer Thomas Cook, jump out of his car before hearing several gunshots. He said Nicholson admitted to him a short time later that he shot at several people outside a gas station near 159th and Wood in Harvey.
Cook was shot twice in the back of the head the next night near the 147th Street Metra Station, about a mile from the gas station.
Nicholson’s defense questioned Guider about his history as a drug dealer during the months before Cook’s death. Guider admitted to dealing heroin and cocaine in 2006, and to not consistently taking medication in September of that year to treat his paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.
“Sometimes, my reality can get distorted,” Guider said.
Cook County prosecutors continued to lay out their case on Friday against Nicholson, who they say had planned to commit armed robbery when he came upon the marked squad car belonging to Cook, a veteran officer and father of two. Nicholson is currently serving time in state prison and won’t be eligible for parole until 2145.
The prosecution is attempting to show jurors the motivation and series of events that allegedly led Nicholson to Cook’s car on the night of Sept. 27, 2006, near the Metra station in Harvey. They are retrying Nicholson for first-degree murder in the death of the officer after a Cook County judge declared a mistrial in an October trial when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision.
Prosecutors are relying on witnesses who were with Nicholson before Cook was killed, including several who have been convicted or are facing criminal charges, and law enforcement officers who are talking about the night of Cook’s death and the subsequent investigation.
Guider is now in state prison for his role in driving the car when Nicholson shot a man at a gas station the night before Cook was killed. Guilder is eligible for parole later this year, but is facing a contempt of court charge after refusing to testify at the October trial despite being granted immunity from any new charges.
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No physical evidence ties Nicholson to the crime, his defense said earlier in the week.
Jeremy Lloyd testified Thursday that he was with Nicholson and watched the defendant raise a gun to Cook’s open squad car window, but turned away before two shots rang out.
On Friday, a crime scene investigator who collected evidence from the scene of Cook’s killing confirmed that he was shot at close range, so close that the gunfire left burn marks on his skin.
The trial is scheduled to continue Monday.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.