Two Guilty Of Murder In CTA Red Line Electrocution
CHICAGO (STMW) - Two CTA passengers who beat and chased another man on a Red Line subway platform where he fell and was electrocuted were convicted of murder Monday.
Maurice Evans, 25, and Antwaun Thompson, 29, may have gotten into a scuffle with Daniel McKenzie and his companions on the train.
But once they exited the car, it was Evans, Thompson and their friends who aggressively pursued McKenzie and kicked and hit him, Cook County prosecutors said in their closing arguments before two separate juries.
"They extinguished his [McKenzie's] life," Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Lattanzio said.
"They rushed him. They surrounded him, and they got him next to the railway."
Lattanzio and fellow prosecutor Kim Ward sought the murder convictions, arguing that McKenzie's death in the early morning hours of July 27, 2008 occurred in the midst of another felony -- mob action.
It didn't matter if McKenzie slipped or was pushed or even if the men never intended to kill McKenzie, 43, Ward told both juries.
All that needed to be proved was that McKenzie wouldn't have fallen face down onto the third rail if he hadn't been pursued by the hostile group at the Roosevelt and State stop, prosecutors said.
Evans' and Thompson's attorneys maintained that McKenzie, his brother, Michael, and their friend were the instigators of the fight aboard the northbound Red Line train. They also discredited a witness' account that Evans was pestering McKenzie's group by asking them what gang they were affiliated with.
Evans, in fact, was stabbed twice with a box cutter wielded by the McKenzie brothers' friend. And all men involved ended up taking off their belts in the "free for all," Evans' attorney Robert Loeb said.
"They [McKenzie's group] were the aggressors. They were looking for a fight," Thompson's lawyer Lorne Gorelick added.
Prosecutors told jurors to focus on the aftermath of the fight, showing them the jarring surveillance video that captures the chase and McKenzie's eventual tumble down.
Evans and Thompson face 20 to 60 years in prison.
Two other men, Clint Johnson, 32, and Martell Johnson, 24, are expected to stand trial for McKenzie's murder in Judge Joseph Kazmierski's courtroom later this week.
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