Trial begins in Buffalo Grove double murder
Witnesses painted a portrait of a friendship soured by drugs Tuesday during the first day of testimony in the trial of Robert Young, a 32-year-old Calumet Park native accused of killing Catonis "Tony" Jones and Sharmaine "Cookie" Gregory in their Buffalo Grove apartment in the early morning hours of Dec. 14, 2006.
Cook County prosecutors Marilyn Hite-Ross and Karen Crothers call it murder, pointing to 60 stab wounds sustained by the 39-year-old Jones, whose kidney disease required dialysis three times a week, leaving him so weakened he often used a wheelchair. His girlfriend Gregory, a 42-year-old mother of three, also sustained numerous stab wounds.
Defense attorneys Bernard Sarley and Jim Mullenix call it self-defense, saying Young - who had a volatile relationship with Jones - went to the victims' apartment unarmed and without malice but was provoked after Jones attacked him first.
"Intense passion from being stabbed overtook his mind and actions," Sarley said in his opening statement of the capital murder trial taking place in Rolling Meadows.
What is clear is that a late-night party - which involved Jones, Young and friend James Stevens - turned deadly, fueled in part by extended drug use. Gregory was in the apartment but did not engage in the drug use, prosecutors say.
Assistant State's Attorney Hite-Ross described the apartment as "a bloodbath."
Testimony revealed that Jones and Young became friends after Young - also known by the nickname O'Shea - began selling Jones drugs. However, tension arose when Jones started selling drugs himself, said Stevens, who shared his Arlington Heights apartment in the 500 block of Happfield Way with Young in the month or so preceding the killings.
Assistant public defender Mullinex challenged Stevens' testimony for inconsistent statements he said the 29-year-old made to police. Stevens testified that an argument between the two men over the phone number of a drug connection - which Jones refused to divulge saying two dealers would bring too much "heat" - escalated to pushing and shoving. Stevens also testified that Young pulled a knife from his pocket and swiped at Jones several times. After Jones fell to the ground, Stevens fled to his apartment.
"I didn't want to believe he was killing Tony," said Stevens.
Asked why he didn't call the police when he realized what had happened and why he didn't tell the police the entire truth when they questioned him about the incident, Stevens said he was scared. He feared his involvement would violate his parole, which he received following a 2004 burglary conviction for which he served four months in the Impact Incarceration Program, a type of boot camp.
Young's former girlfriend Joy Jones, the mother of his 6-year-old daughter, testified that Young returned to the apartment he and Stevens shared about 8 a.m. Dec. 14 with bloody, cutup hands.
"He was acting bizarre," said the 28-year-old Chicago woman. "He said he had killed Tony and Cookie."
She said he later talked about returning to Jones' apartment to get some "high-end items." Prosecutors say Young returned to the apartment sometime after Jones and Gregory were killed and took a DVD player. Stevens and another witness, Frank Pleasant, Young's stepfather, testified that Young tried to pawn a DVD player the day after the deaths.
Prosecutors say Young disabled Jones' smoke detector when he returned to the apartment, lit the stove and left several pots on the burners, along with a dish towel, apparently hoping it would start a fire and destroy evidence. A neighbor noticed the smoke and called the Buffalo Grove Fire Department whose officers alerted police upon realizing they had entered a crime scene.
Testimony continues today.