The Verdict

One of the reasons I started this blog nearly three years ago was to try to deal with the grief in the then-unsolved murder of my friend Mark "Atwood" Evans. Mark and I met at Eastern Illinois University in 1983, we remained close friends until his murder on the night of June 3/4 2006.

In August of that year, a young gang member was arrested and charged with being a participant in the robbery attempt in which Mark was shot to death. I elaborated on that in this post.

The police finally arrested the guy who shot Mark in December, 2007. It turned out that he had also murdered one of his accomplices, who he was afraid was going to "roll" on him. The prosecutors decided to try the case of the murder of the accomplice, which had more eyewitnesses, and was, consequently, a stronger case. If they could secure a conviction on that case, it would bolster the prosecution in Mark's case.

Because of school and work this week, I've got to keep this post short-- I'll post a longer one Thursday. Yesterday, the prosecution and defense gave their final arguments and the jury convened. I wasn't able to be there because of school, but old friends Tim and Matt were able to go. Since we have wifi at the school, I was able to keep Facebook on. Tim sent a note out that the jury had convened. When I got another message an hour later, that the jury had already returned, I knew that this was probably good news. It was. The defendant was found guilty on both counts-- Murder One and Use of a firearm in the commission of a crime.

The sentencing will be August 5. The minimum sentence is 45 years. The judge is known for not handing out minimum sentences. They will also have a hearing to begin the process of trying Mark's case. The same judge will preside over his case.

Funny-- as I'm finishing this post, "Alone Again, Or..." by Love came up on Little Steven's Undergound Garage. It was a song I discovered through Mark. Here's a Youtube post of the late Arthur Lee and Love performing it.