Elk Grove murder suspect's interrogation played in court
"Why would I kill my cousin?"
Deon Moore posed that question to officers during his videotaped interrogation days after his cousin Larry Moore, 33, was found shot to death in an Elk Grove Village motel room on May 20, 2017.
"We're trying to figure it out ... maybe it was an accident. ... Something happened to set this off," said one of the officers in the video, which prosecutors played Thursday, the second day of Deon Moore's bench trial before Cook County Judge Steven J. Goebel.
Prosecutors say Deon Moore pistol-whipped his cousin and then shot him in the neck after a heated, alcohol-fueled argument that unfolded around midnight on May 19, 2017. They say Moore, 34, remained in the room on the 1000 block of West Devon Avenue until about 11 a.m. the next day. He later showed up at the home of his aunt Debra Moore - the victim's mother - where prosecutors say he pretended to grieve with other family members.
Defense attorneys say Deon Moore never intended to hurt his cousin, who they claim had a temper and was known to drink excessively. They say their client grew fearful after sensing his cousin becoming aggressive. Deon Moore acted stupidly and recklessly, they say, but did not mean to kill Larry Moore.
Prosecutors played about 2½ hours of the interrogation video. During that time, Debra Moore's eyes never left her nephew's face.
On the video, Deon Moore told detectives he was with Larry Moore at the motel but left sometime between midnight and 12:45 a.m. May 20. He told them a woman he met through an online dating site picked him up at the motel in a gray SUV. Deon Moore insisted several times he had nothing to do with his cousin's murder.
"If we go back and look at the video, would it show a girl picking you up?" asked one of the detectives.
The officers told Moore no such video exists. They told him motel-supplied surveillance video - which prosecutors played for the judge last week - shows the cousins entering and exiting the lobby and Larry Moore's room multiple times before Moore's death. The video also shows Deon Moore leaving the room about 11 a.m. May 20 carrying a duffel bag.
"On the video it's clearly you. There's no doubt in our minds it was you," said one of the detectives.
Earlier, Cook County Assistant Medical Examiner Adrienne Segovia testified Larry Moore was shot in the neck and had injuries to the back of his head, his nose and his mouth. Segovia also testified that the injuries to the back of Moore's head could have been caused by his head's striking something, which defense attorneys suggested might have been a dresser drawer.