Attorneys for a man accused of killing a Metra police officer nine years ago will begin calling witnesses Wednesday in his retrial, including one the defense previously suggested was the real killer of Thomas Cook, according to a Cook County prosecutor.
Jemetric Nicholson, 28, is being retried this week for Cook’s slaying after a Cook County jury was unable to reach a verdict in an October trial. Cook, a father of two, was shot twice in the back of the head while on special patrol on Sept. 27, 2006, near the 147th Street Metra station in Harvey after a rash of armed robberies of commuters.
The witness set to testify Wednesday, Dietrich Henry, was identified by a another witness in the October trial as being with Nicholson the night Cook was murdered.
“I’m here to clear my name, because I didn’t do it,” Henry said in court late Tuesday afternoon.
Cook County Judge Frank Zelezinski told Henry he should seek representation before testifying. Henry was scheduled to meet with an attorney from the Cook County public defender’s office before the trial resumes Wednesday.
Nicholson currently is serving time in Stateville Correctional Center on convictions that included the attempted murder of a Harvey police officer the same day Cook was killed. He won’t be eligible for parole until 2145.
In October, Jeremy Lloyd told a Cook County jury he and Nicholson met up with Henry and set out to commit armed robbery the night Cook was killed, and that Henry distracted the officer from the passenger side of the car while Nicholson walked up to the open driver’s side window.
Lloyd gave his testimony as part of a plea agreement related to his role as the lookout in Cook’s murder.
More Top Picks Best Coffee Grinders For Fresh Beans
An assistant medical examiner from the Cook County medical examiner’s office testified Monday that the path of the bullets that killed Cook was consistent with him having turned toward the passenger side of his vehicle.
A transcript of Nicholson’s testimony at the October trial was read to jurors Wednesday, in which he denied shooting Cook. He did admit to shooting rivals at a Harvey gas station in the 48 hours before the officer’s death. Nicholson denied shooting at the Harvey officer.
The prosecution spent early Tuesday afternoon questioning one investigator from the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force about interviews conducted of Nicholson in October 2006, where he told police he was bagging marijuana at the time Cook was killed.
Master Sgt. Matt Gainer of the Illinois State Police said Nicholson denied, at first, being in Harvey when the officer was killed and, later, claimed he was shooting dice and processing the marijuana that night. Gainer said witnesses “typically change their stories” over time.
One consistency in accounts by some witnesses interviewed by the task force was that Nicholson was the shooter, Gainer said.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.