Trial Begins For Man Accused Of Shooting Girlfriend in 2012

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL — Opening statements were made Tuesday in the trial of a former Chicago Heights man accused of shooting his live-in girlfriend in a case that has crawled through the court system since 2012. George Kleopa, 40, appeared before Cook County Judge Patrick Coughlin at the Markham Courthouse on a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter of a family member reduced from theoriginal charges of first-degree murder. Kleopa isfree on a $2 million bail. A jury was selected on Monday.

Kleopa and his girlfriend, 30-year-old Michele Peters, formerly of Oak Lawn and Hometown, were a couple for ten years with two young sons leading up to March 6, 2012, when Michele was found gravely wounded by a gunshot in the couple’s home at 105 W. Hickory St. in Chicago Heights. Kleopa has maintained that the gun misfired after he asked Peters to hand him his Springfield XE .40-caliber handgun to him, so he could clean it.

His attorney, Ted Gallen, one of three defense attorneys representing Kleopa, claimed in his opening statement that Kleopa was “hysterical” and had tried to give Peters CPR, blowing blood away from her nose and face, where the bullet entered her right cheek and lodged in her brain. Gallen maintained that Chicago Heights paramedics had to pull Kleopa off of Peters when they arrived and that Kleopa sat on the couch crying as paramedics tended to a dying Peters. The young mom was taken to St. James Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.

The first witness to take the stand was Lt. Alfredo Salinas, of the Chicago Heights Police Department. Then a detective in 2012, Salinas said he arrived about 15 minutes after the shooting.

“George was present in the entry hall and had a massive amount of blood on his face, chest and hands,” Salinas told Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Michelle Spizzirri.

After spending about 20 minutes in the home taking pictures of the blood splattered living room, Salinas said he went to St. James Hospital “to check on the victim” only to learn that Peters had died. The detective returned to the Chicago Heights police station, where George had been brought in handcuffs by other officers after changing out of his bloody clothes.

Kleopa repeated his story of asking Peters to bring him his gun, so he could clean it, but when Salinas asked him why the cleaning kit wasn’t in the living room, Kleopa said it was upstairs in the bedroom and later admitted to not knowing where the kit was located.

“He said Michele handed the gun to him with her right hand,” Salinas testified, “then said he was playing with the gun back and forth with his finger on the trigger when the gun went off.”

Under blistering cross-examination by defense attorney David Sotomayer, who was frequently reprimanded by the judge for being argumentative with witnesses, the attorney questioned Salinas why he didn’t video-tape his interview with Kleopa.

Salinas said at the time it was still a death investigation, but once Kleopa started making inconsistent statements, Kleopa was brought to another room with a video camera. Salinas further added that Kleopa was neither hysterical nor screaming when he arrived at the Hickory Street home, but was not “indifferent” to the situation.

Catherine Peters, Michele’s mother, who has attended all of Kleopa’s court hearings for the past eight years, took the stand as the “life-death witness.”

“She was my daughter,” Peters told Spizzirri. “She still is.”

Peters testified under cross-examination by Sotomayer that Kleopa and her daughter did not consider themselves to be “husband and wife.”

Testimony was also heard from Kerry Moran, an evidence technician for the Illinois State Police, who described how he had gathered physical evidence from the scene. Moran said he found the Springfield XE .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun partially under the couch.

The rest of the afternoon was focused on prosecutor witness Robert Hunton, a forensics criminal scientist for the Illinois State Police. Lead prosecutor Nick D’Angelo took Hunton through a detailed explanation about the Springfield’s various safety features, establishing the improbability that the gun had misfired.

Prosecutors were not allowed to present evidence to the jury of Kleopa’s alleged psychological abuse of Peters. Her mother maintains that her daughter's bags were packed, and she was planning to move with the children back to Hometown without their father. Other family members allege that Kleopa frequently called Peters’ derogatory names in front of her family and friends. Jurors were also not allowed to hear from a neighbor, who claimed he heard Kleopa and Peters arguing throughout the evening of March 6, 2012.

Kleopa is currently back living in Oak Forest where he was raised, according to court records.

The state rested its case. Defense attorneys will present their side on Wednesday, including a blood splatter expert to whom $50,000 is being paid from Kleopa’s bail money, according to court records. His attorneys told the judge that they would be conferring with Kleopa about possibly taking the stand.