A man sentenced to 56 years in prison in the 2014 shooting death in Skokie of Niles North High School student Maxwell Gadau, and attempted murder in the shooting of Gadau’s friend Jeannette Spitz, must be given a new trial, an appellate court has ruled.
In a June 2 ruling, the Appellate Court of Illinois First District, Sixth Division, said that Dzevad Avdic, the only person convicted of felony first degree murder and attempted first degree murder in the case, must be given a new trial because the jury in his original 2018 trial at the Skokie courthouse was not given proper instructions before they deliberated. Avdic has been in prison since that conviction.
“We reverse and remand for a new trial consistent with this opinion,” the court’s 48-page written opinion says. It goes on to say that the trial court erred by refusing to provide the jury with instructions requested by the defendant that could have resulted in his acquittal or conviction on a lesser charge.
After that reversal came down, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office said in a statement Friday.”We are reviewing the matter to determine next legal steps and unable to further comment at this time.”
Prosecutors never alleged that Avdic was the shooter in the crime or even in the vehicle when it happened. But of the five people charged, he was the only one found guilty of felony first degree murder and attempted murder in the case.
Anthony Hicks of Chicago, the man who prosecutors had alleged actually pulled the trigger in the robbery, was found not guilty of felony murder and attempted murder in September 2021.
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At the time of Avdic’s 2018 trial, prosecutors alleged that Avdic, Hicks and three others planned to rob Niles North High School student Jeanette Spitz of two ounces of marijuana and that Spitz agreed to meet them in a vehicle in the 9200 block of Kedvale Avenue in Skokie. They said Spitz had asked Gadau, her friend, to accompany her as support and protection during the drug transaction.
Once there, Avdic and two other teens waited in a nearby vehicle as Hicks and another teenager, Myles Hughes, then 17, got into a vehicle with Gadau and Spitz, prosecutors said. During Avdic’s trial for murder, Hughes testified that he got into the car with Hicks and that as soon as Spitz pulled out two ounces of marijuana, Hicks shot Gadau through the back seat, then shot Spitz in the face. He said that he and Hicks grabbed the cannabis, ran back to the car and drove into Chicago with the other three men. The five were arrested and charged a short time later.
Prosecutors also said that although Avdic was not in Spitz’s car when she and Gadau were shot, he was waiting in a nearby car, and that because he helped plan the robbery, under the law of accountability, he was just as responsible for the shootings as Hicks. During Avdic’s trial, he testified that he didn’t know that Hicks had a gun.
Chicago defense attorney Damon Cheronis represented Avdic in his 2018 trial and subsequent appeal.
“Our theory was this was not a ‘felony murder’ because our client was not involved in the planning of the underlying felony and he did not know that the shooter had a gun,” he said. “We really pushed that theory during the trial and we asked that all of these instructions, ‘proximate cause and foreseeability instructions’ be given to the jury. It was not allowed.”
“Also, the court should have instructed the jury on a lesser included offense,” he said. “In other words, they could have found our client guilty of robbery but not felony murder.
“In this case, the court did a great job of saying ‘wait a second, the state still has to establish that the murder was reasonably foreseeable to my client,'” he said. “There was no dispute that our client was not involved in the acts that led to the killing of Max and to the attempted murder of Jeanette.”
He also said Avdic’s new trial will likely be held later this year.
The opinion states that Justice Sharon Oden Johnson delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion, Justice Carl A. Walker concurred in the judgment and opinion and Justice Sanjay Tailor specially concurred, with opinion.