A Chicago man is on trial this week for allegedly killing a 14-year-old in Whiting.
Leonardo Nunez, 22, is charged with murder in the March 23, 2024, death of Damien Abenante, 14, of Chicago.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Lanham told jurors Monday that Abenante and a group of teens were walking to baseball fields when he was shot at 5:19 p.m. They had just left his teen cousin’s home, who was celebrating his birthday.
Video footage appeared to show a Nissan vehicle was in a nearby alley a minute before the shooting, she said. Within five minutes, the vehicle was back in Illinois. Nunez’s cellphone put him “exactly at the scene of the crime,” she said.
Defense lawyer John Cantrell told jurors Nunez went to his mom’s home for his 3-year-old sister’s birthday party on Chicago’s South Side. He crossed the nearby border into Indiana to “get gas” and “run errands.”
“He did not get involved in a shooting or a skirmish (with teenagers),” Cantrell said. Prosecutors “don’t know why this happened or what this is about.”
Whiting Police responded on March 23, 2024, to the 1600 block of La Porte Avenue.
Detective Brad Stelow wrote a pair of white shoes and a cellphone were still on the sidewalk. Abenante was taken to St. Catherine’s in East Chicago.
Three bullet casings were found in a yard across the street. By the time Stelow got to the hospital, Abenante had been pronounced dead.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office said the teen was shot in the chest. His death was ruled a homicide. No guns were recovered.
A witness told police he heard two “pops” before seeing a male in a red sweatshirt running from the scene.
Security footage about a block away captured a black Nissan driving toward Indianapolis Boulevard just after the shooting. The vehicle was registered to Nunez’s relative.
The driver was a “younger, light-skinned” man with “distinct facial features.” Police matched the footage to Nunez’s BMV photo.
A witness told Griffith Police he was with Abenante when he was shot. He had gotten into a fight in 2023 with “Adonis,” who police later learned was Nunez’s brother, according to the charging affidavit.
Nunez went to Advocate Trinity Hospital in Chicago for a gunshot wound the next day, the affidavit alleges.