Following lengthy closing arguments Friday afternoon, a Lake County jury began deliberations into whether Kevin Curtis, charged with murder, purposefully stabbed 19-year-old Jacob Blum in a Waukegan motel or whether the stabbing was an accident, as claimed by the defendant.
After deliberating for hours, the jury was sent home after 8 p.m. and is scheduled to reconvene to continue deliberations Tuesday morning, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Turk.
If convicted of the first-degree murder charges against him, Curtis, 29, a transient at the time of the July 16, 2013, stabbing, faces a mandatory sentence of 20 to 60 years in prison.
Curtis and Blum were co-workers at Windy City Meats in Gurnee, and Curtis was in the motel room used by Blum, his brother Kevin Blum and his father, Jeffrey Blum, when the stabbing occurred, authorities said.
During the weeklong trial, prosecutors said Jacob Blum was lying in a bed in the room watching a movie when Curtis attacked him, stabbing him once in the chest with a switchblade.
Blum made it down to the lobby of the motel and was treated by paramedics but died of blood loss, a collapsed lung and cardiac arrest while en route to or shortly after arrival at Vista Medical Center West in Waukegan, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors and witnesses said that Curtis sometimes stayed with the Blums in their hotel room while the Blums were looking for a permanent residence but that Curtis had been told on that evening that he could come up to the room and use the phone but not stay overnight.
“At first, this may seem complex with a lot of witnesses and evidence,” Turk said in his closing argument to the jury. “This is murder. Murder by Kevin Curtis, sitting right at that table over there.”
Turk said the Blums had experienced a fairly normal night until the stabbing occurred.
“What happened next, though, was horrifying,” he said, holding the folding knife that killed Jacob Blum in his hands. “The defendant took this knife and plunged it into (Blum’s) chest.”
Defense attorney Eric Rinehart told the jury Friday there was no objective evidence in the case that showed Curtis killed Blum. He said Curtis was telling the truth when he took the witness stand earlier Friday and said that as he was cleaning his fingernails with the knife, Blum “plowed” into him and was accidentally stabbed.
Curtis testified there had been several occasions of wrestling and horseplay between he and Blum in the recent past.
Rinehart said most of the state’s evidence, from bloody pictures of the motel breakfast room where Blum was being treated to audio of the 911 call in which Blum can be heard screaming “I’m going to die,” was used to elicit sympathy but did not prove what happened in the room.
“If you have more questions than answers, then your verdict must be not guilty,” Rinehart said.
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Turk said that while the state has the burden of proof in the case, it does not have to provide or prove motive in the case.
“Sometimes people just do things. (We) just have to prove facts,” Turk said, arguing that the angle of the stab wound did not corroborate Curtis’ account of what had happened and that Blum had told witnesses he had been stabbed.
Rinehart and defense attorney Kevin Malia argued throughout the trial that there was no reason for Curtis to attack Blum and that there was no testimony that Curtis had even been asked to leave the motel room by anyone even though the incident occurred late at night.
But prior to closing arguments, the state called a witness who said he was attacked without reason by Curtis the very same day that Blum died.
Gregory Davis, who lived in Gurnee at the time, said Curtis and another man came by his home selling meat from a truck on July 16, 2013. Davis agreed to buy some hamburgers, but Davis said Curtis was struggling to get his portable credit card machine to accept the payment from Davis.
Suddenly, Davis said, Curtis, who was an acquaintance, punched him in the face with no warning “at all” while Davis was standing in his driveway. Davis said Curtis then punched him in the face again. Davis said he then went to the ground “covering my head” when Curtis punched him a third time in the back of the head before being pulled off of Davis by two bystanders.
Police were called, and pictures were taken of Davis’ injuries.
On Thursday of the weeklong trial, Blum’s father testified about his memories of that night.
Jeffrey Blum said that after work, he returned to his motel room about 10:30 p.m. to find his sons in the room, as well as Curtis.
He said that shortly after he arrived, Kevin Blum left the room to make a phone call, Jacob Blum was lying on one bed watching a movie and Curtis was sitting on the other bed cleaning his fingernails with a knife.
Jeffrey Blum said he went into the bathroom to shave, leaving the door open, when he heard Jacob Blum scream, “What the (expletive), Kevin!”
“I heard Jacob screaming,” Blum said, stating that he immediately left the bathroom to find his son rushing toward him “with blood gushing out of his chest.”
Jeffrey Blum said he directed Jacob Blum to the door and told him to get to the motel lobby because he was bleeding badly, and then he saw Curtis coming toward him with a bloody knife.
Jeffrey Blum testified that he then grabbed Curtis by the wrist, removed the knife from his hand and dragged him down to the floor, holding him by the arm so that he couldn’t leave.
He said that after about five minutes, Kevin Blum returned to the room and tackled Curtis off of his father, at which point Jeffrey Blum said he grabbed the knife and scissors on a nearby table to clear the room of weapons before heading down to the lobby.
Jeffrey Blum said he was met by Waukegan police officers who told him to “drop the weapons,” and he said he put them on a chair in the lobby and then was allowed to go to his wounded son.
He said he saw Jacob Blum lying in a small dining area near the lobby with motel employees and that paramedics had just arrived.
“He said ‘I’m not going to make it,’ ” Jeffrey Blum said. “I told him, ‘Let these guys (paramedics) work on you, these are the ones who are going to save you.’ “
Curtis, who was taken into custody at the hotel, was treated for cuts on his hand, which he told police and paramedics happened when he cut himself. He invoked his right to remain silent shortly after questioning began with a Waukegan detective.
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