Waukegan murder case goes to jury
The trial for a man accused of murdering a Round Lake Park woman during a Waukegan store robbery six years ago has gone to the jury, prosecutors said Friday night.
Montago Suggs, now 29, of Kenosha, Wis., has been on trial since Tuesday in the first-degree murder of 23-year-old Melinda Morrell.
Prosecutors said Suggs entered the Check N’ Go on the 1100 block of Green Bay Road in Waukegan on May 21, 2007 and confronted Morrell, a store employee. Authorities said Suggs shot her execution-style in the back of the head, then stole $2,000.
A customer found her body later that afternoon.
Suggs was arrested five days later after authorities say he fled the scene of an attempted robbery of the Ma and Pa’s Country Store in Beach Park.
Prosecutors have said a shell casing from the gun that killed Morrell matched the weapon that was pointed at a store clerk at the store in Beach Park.
Suggs’ public defender has argued that Suggs was coerced into confessing to the murder after four days of interrogation.
Suggs is eligible for life in prison if found guilty. He has been held without bond at the Lake County jail.