A quarantine at the Stateville Correctional Center is delaying the sentencing of a felon there convicted of killing a Metra police officer almost 10 years ago, according to his defense attorney.
Jemetric Nicholson was scheduled to appear Friday afternoon in Markham court. In January, a Cook County jury found the 28-year-old man guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of veteran Officer Thomas Cook.
The quarantine is preventing Nicholson’s transfer from the Crest Hill prison to the Markham courthouse for that appearance, said David Sotomayor, one of Nicholson’s defense attorneys. This is the second delay for Nicholson, whose original sentencing date was Feb. 26.
Nicholson is already serving time for multiple convictions, including the attempted murder of a different police officer. He won’t be eligible for parole until 2145.
Five inmates are isolated in the prison infirmary with clinical symptoms of chickenpox, according to a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections. One unit inside the prison is under “restricted movement” as part of the quarantine, which has been in place since Feb. 26. Units house up to about 200 inmates.
“The quarantine can last up to 21 days,” Dede Short, public relations officer for the Department of Corrections, said in an email.
Short declined to comment on whether Nicholson was sick or confirm if he was housed in the unit under quarantine.
Jury members spent two days deliberating in January before finding Nicholson guilty. In October, Cook County Judge Frank Zelezinski declared a mistrial during Nicholson’s first murder trial after a different jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision.
During both trials, prosecutors alleged Nicholson and two other men crept up to Cook as he sat inside his marked squad car on the night of Sept. 27, 2006. The officer was on special detail near the 147th Street Metra station in Harvey to combat a rash of armed robberies in the area, when he was shot twice in the back of the head.
One witness for the defense, Jeremy Lloyd, told jurors he watched as Nicholson silently raised a gun to the cracked window of Cook’s car. He turned away to run before hearing two shots fired. Lloyd gave his testimony as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors to get a reduced sentence for his role as the lookout in the murder of Cook. A third assailant was never charged.
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The conviction brought to an end years of waiting for Cook’s wife, Pam, and their two children.
The Stateville Correctional Center is a maximum security prison that houses about 3,500 male inmates.
Nicholson’s sentencing was rescheduled for March 31.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.