Defendant disputes police in Wheeling standoff case

Reports differ as to how Gabriel Guzman was apprehended last June 30.

Wheeling police say he was hiding under a bed at the Chicago home he shared with girlfriend Avilen Rodriguez when they arrested him. Rodriguez says Guzman wasn't hiding and that he walked up to the officers when they approached him.

Disagreements like that were common throughout Guzman's bench trial Tuesday on a charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in an incident that had led police to shut down access to a Wheeling townhouse complex for several hours. But however his arrest unfolded, Guzman's case concluded with a conviction before Cook County Judge Thomas Fecarotta.

In pronouncing his verdict in a Rolling Meadows courtroom, Fecarotta relied heavily on the testimony of Wheeling police officers, including Adam Sherman who stated that in the early hours of June 27, he saw the 24-year-old Guzman place a shiny metallic object, which Sherman believed might be a handgun, under a car parked at the Wheeling complex. Sherman ordered Guzman to stop. Instead Guzman ran into one of the townhouses and locked the door, Sherman said. Backup arrived within minutes and set up surveillance at the front and back door.

"Not seeing anyone leave, we believed there was an armed subject in the house," said Wheeling Deputy Chief Bill Benson.

That prompted a call to the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System, mutual-aid police consortium that assists members during disasters and other events. Between 50 and 60 police officers arrived, asked people to stay in their houses and restricted movement into the complex for about eight hours.

The trial unfolded as a case of he said/she said/he said with police claiming Guzman dashed in the front door, slipped out the back, hopped a fence and headed to Chicago before police managed to contain the situation.

Defense witness Rodriguez said Guzman had been with her in their Chicago home at the time. Her stepfather, Victor Gonzalez, who lives in the townhouse, claims no one entered the house, but admitted to being asleep at the time. Assistant public defender Joe Gump pointed out that Guzman's fingerprints where not found on the gun that Sherman recovered and that police didn't find him in the townhouse.

"No one said he hung around for a coffee and a doughnut," quipped assistant state's attorney Mike Gerber in his closing statement.

In the end, Fecarotta said the case hinged on witness credibility and he found for the state. He set a Nov. 13 date for post-trial motions.