Wesley Woodson Guilty Of Dajae Coleman's Murder, Attempted Murder Of 7 Others

EVANSTON, IL — A jury found Wesley Woodson guilty on all counts Friday in the murder trial of Daejae Coleman. Woodson, 25, was charged with one count of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder in the connection with the killing of the 14-year-old ETHS freshman in September of 2012.

Coleman was walking home from his first high school party with Jeremiah Brooks, Anthony Jones, Justin Reneau, Delanio Robinson, C.J. Singletary, Brandon Taylor, Nibra White when he was fatally struck in the back by a bullet, which a jury found was fired by Wesley Woodson.

VIDEO: Tiffany Rice, mother of Dajae Coleman, reacts to the verdict outside the Skokie courthouse.

Evanston Police released a statement in response to the verdict Saturday morning:

It is the sincere hope of the Evanston Police Department that the guilty verdict brings about some justice and relief to the family of Dajae Coleman. The police department would also like to recognize the hard work and dedication of the police officers, state's attorney's and victim advocates during the investigation and subsequent trial as well as the amount of cooperation that was received from the Evanston community during the entire investigation.

Original story:

EVANSTON, IL — The jury in the trial of Daejae Coleman's accused murderer heard closing arguments and begun deliberations Thursday. The four men and eight women are deciding the fate of Wesley Woodson, 25, charged with one count of first degree murder and seven counts of attempted first degree murder in connection with the killing of the 14-year-old ETHS freshman on Sept. 22, 2012. Coleman was walking home from his first high school party with a group of teens when fatally struck in the back by a single bullet.

"Which one of you little [expletive] was just shooting?" the gunman said, according to witnesses, immediately before firing five shots at the eight fleeing youth. Each shot was described by one of the surviving teens as appearing to have been deliberately and carefully aimed.

Woodson's defense team, Steven "Randy" Rueckert and Michael Krejci, called into question the reliability of eyewitness testimony. While one of his neighbors came forward and told police he recognized the then 20-year-old Woodson as the shooter, other neighbors on the block testified that they did not see him, and one saw a car fleeing the scene with its lights off. Defense lawyers also suggested it was been too dark to reliably recognize anyone.

The prosecution's theory of the case relies on Wesley Woodson's gang membership during what police described as the particularly violent summer of 2012. They argued that Coleman's murder was the culmination of months of escalating hostilities between two groups of Evanston youth, and they cited Woodson's own shooting in April of that year as a key moment in the bloodshed.

"That ignited the most ferocious stretch of gang violence that Evanston had ever seen," said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Edward McCarthy. Woodson refused to cooperate with police after he and a friend were shot, telling an Evanston detective, "I don't talk to people like you." Prosecutors and police described a stretch of shootings, stabbings, beatings with bats and golf clubs and other mayhem as fighting between local gangs "O-Block" and "D-Block" intensified.

"Its war out here [sic] I need aid and assist," texted Woodson less than a week before the murder. The week prior he had texted an associate, "I need a 30 [round extended] clip for my compact 9 [mm]...I need 2 more actually," saying gang rivals were after him. Intended retaliation was Woodson's motive for the shooting, according to prosecutors. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Evanston — or your community. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

On the night of Coleman's death, there had been a disturbance at a local party in which a group of younger gang members were allegedly flashing weapons and Woodson's cousin was allegedly stabbed. His parents drove to pick up the cousin. After they left — and fewer than 10 minutes before Coleman's shooting, according to 911 calls — several shots were fired from a few blocks away, which both sets of attorneys said was the spark that led to the shooting. Neither side has presented a theory about who was responsible for those earlier shots, although they were at the same location as Woodson had been shot earlier that year, which police said was an "epicenter" of local gang violence.

That night, Woodson was staying home with his girlfriend, sister and another friend. According to text messages, his girlfriend had been trying to protect him from the recent violence and urged him to stay home. But prosecutors argue he slipped out, retrieved a 9 mm handgun from a spot in the bushes where he hid the gun from his parents, and began walking toward the source of the shooting with the intention of retaliating against a gang of younger teens. Instead of encountering rival gang members, he happened upon Coleman and seven of his friends and opened fire, prosecutors told the jury.

» 5 Years After Fatal Shooting Of 14-Year-Old Dajae Coleman, Murder Trial Begins

Woodson's initial alibi, according to his videotaped interview with police played at trial, was that he was at home with his parents when he heard the fatal shots, and prosecutors told the jury he had intended to have his family endorse that alibi. They did not.

In his closing argument, defense attorney Michael Krejci said the state had spent a great deal of the trial trying to establish Woodson's gang membership, which he conceded.

"Nobody's hiding the fact he's a gang member," he said, arguing police focused on his client because he happened to live so close to the murder scene.

"What's the real reason for that? They're just throwing everything up [as] character assassination, even against his sister...everything that surrounds 'D-Block' apparently goes to Wesley," he said, pointing out Woodson had not been arrested for any of the earlier incidents earlier in the during that summer.

But, he said, whether or not Woodson was a nice person or Coleman was a star basketball player — or whether some witnesses have had academic or athletic success — does not prove his client is a murderer.

"Put aside your emotions and your sympathy and decide on the evidence," which includes "many unanswered questions," Krejci told the jury. "This isn't about retaliation against a rival gang member, as much as they want it to be...This isn't mistaken retaliation — this is actual retaliation."

Krejci pointed out differing witness statements from prosecution witnesses to identified Woodson as the shooter. He noted an eyewitnesses who fingered Woodson in a photo lineup after being shot at told police he was only 40 percent sure, and his neighbor, in the course of seven statements to police, first gave investigators a vague description before coming forward four days later to identify Woodson.

"Seven times he changed his story," Krejci said. He suggested it defies common sense to think that the witness was afraid of his neighbor. "That's a lot of hogwash....you can't believe [him], you can't."

» Eyewitness Testifies In Dajae Coleman Murder Trial

The jury began deliberating Thursday evening, with one juror having been excused and replaced by an alternate because of a commitment to officiate a wedding in Wyoming Friday. The jury first must consider each of the eight counts of murder and attempted murder. If they decide Woodson is guilty, they will consider the aggravating factor of whether Woodson fired a gun.

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_{Top image: (From left) Wesley Woodson, Dajae Coleman | via Evanston PD, Tiffany Rice}