Hadiya Pendleton Jury Expected To See Alleged Gunman's Interrogation
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Cook County prosecutors could rest their case today against Micheail Ward, the alleged gunman in the 2013 slaying of honor student Hadiya Pendleton. Ward's jury is expected to view his videotaped interrogation today, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Ward confessed to shooting Hadiya after 23 hours of on-and-off questioning, but later recanted. Defense attorneys have claimed police coerced and manipulated Ward into a false confession.
Prosecutors rested their case yesterday against the alleged getaway driver, Kenneth Williams, after Hadiya's mother took the stand to testify about her daughter's last day alive.
Cleopatra Cowley recalled receiving a chaotic and confusing phone call from Hadiya's friend around 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2013.
"She indicated that Hadiya had been shot, and I didn't understand that, because it just didn't make any sense, and so I gave my phone to my co-worker and asked them to talk on the phone, because I needed to … I couldn't understand what they were saying, because I didn't understand why my daughter had been shot," she said.
Hadiya's mother testified she never feared her 15-year-old daughter would be gunned down just days after the drum majorette performed with her school band at President Barack Obama's second inaugural festivities.
Cowley kept her composure for most of her six-minute testimony, breaking only a few times in her answers to questions about the minutes and hours after Hadiya was shot.
"When we arrived at the hospital, they were still working on her. So she was alive, but with the doctors and medical staff," Cowley testified. "Soon, someone came in and said that she had died from her injuries."
Hadiya was walking with a group of friends at Harsh Park in the Kenwood neighborhood in January 2013, when they took shelter from the rain. Prosecutors have argued Ward and Williams mistook the group for rival gang members and started shooting.
Investigators have told the jury the park is a hangout for rival gang factions, and police have said surveillance video and witness statements led to Ward's and Williams' arrests.
Separate juries were selected for Ward and Williams, due to their competing defenses.
Defense attorneys have blasted the prosecution's case as weak, pointing to a lack of physical evidence linking Ward and Williams to the crime.
