First-degree murder charges filed against a Naperville woman who fatally shot her boyfriend two years ago were dismissed Thursday by DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, who said “recently discovered evidence” showed she was the victim of chronic domestic abuse.
April O. Turner, now 39, had been charged in the March 15, 2020, shooting death of Nicarro L. Drake, 30, of Naperville, at Turner’s home in the Steeple Run neighborhood near the Naperville-Lisle border.
In a statement, Berlin said he could not “in good faith” meet the burden of proving Turner “was not legally justified in using deadly force against the victim” after receiving information from Turner’s attorneys and from the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office related to Drake’s alleged prior conduct and violent character.
The evidence shined a new light on the case “that unequivocally confirms Ms. Turner was the victim of chronic domestic abuse at the hands of the victim,” Berlin said.
Sheriff’s deputies said the shooting occurred while a group of friends were drinking at Turner’s home in the 6S100 block of Lakewood Drive.
At Turner’s bond hearing, prosecutors said Drake struck Turner in the face and threatened her with a towel bar while they were in a bathroom. Turner went to a bedroom closet to retrieve a 9mm handgun and fired three rounds, one of which struck Drake in the chest.
Turner relinquished the gun to a friend and then called 911 to report the shooting, prosecutors said.
While Berlin did not disclose what new evidence had been submitted by lawyers and sheriff’s investigators in July 2022, it was strong enough to persuade him to drop the charges, he said.
“I fully understand the weight and consequences of this decision to both the victim’s family and to Ms. Turner,” Berlin said. “I made this decision, however, focused squarely on justice, based solely on the facts and circumstances of the case as well as the law in Illinois regarding the admissibility of evidence in self-defense cases.”
Turner and Drake had been romantically involved for eight years, prosecutors said. Court records show Turner, the mother of two, obtained an order of protection against Drake in 2012, one of several taken out against Drake by different women.
At the time he was killed, Drake was on probation for hitting a woman in the face outside a Naperville nightclub in 2017, according to court records. Drake pleaded guilty to battery and was admitted to a mental health alternative court program, records said.
In a civil suit filed by the nightclub victim against Drake, she said she did not know Drake when he started harassed her and her friends and eventually struck her.
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