Trial opens in swimmer's shooting death
Bernard Soya of Deerfield was 18-years-old when a bullet ripped into his head Nov. 6, 2007 and killed him.
A jury of eight women and four men in Lake County Circuit Court will attempt to determine this week how that happened to the former all-state swimmer.
Police say Clifford Powers, also 18 at the time and living with a girlfriend in Antioch, shot Soya three times while trying to steal eight ounces of marijuana he had agreed to buy.
Defense attorney Greg Nikitas of Waukegan told jurors in his opening statement they should not convict his client of first-degree murder, but stopped short of saying Powers acted in self-defense.
Soya was found sprawled across the front seat of a rented Kia Sorento in a parking lot in the 1000 block of E. Park Avenue in Libertyville.
Detectives of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force traced the car to a friend of Soya, then found two employees of a business fronting the parking lot who admitted arranging the drug deal between Powers and Soya.
Police said Powers was driven to the meeting by a friend, who told them Powers came running back to his car with blood on his hand and a pistol in his waistband.
"The defendant said 'I just shot the guy in the stomach and the head. I think he is dead.'" Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Reginald Matthews said.
Nikitas showed little of his hand in his opening statement, but did ask the jurors not to prejudge the case.
"What happened to Bernard Soya was a tragedy, there is no doubt about that," he said. "But this man (pointing to Powers) is charged with first-degree murder, and that is a tragedy as well."
Matthews also asked the jurors not to pass judgment on the victim or the witnesses he will call to talk about the drug deal.
"We are not talking about choir boys here," Matthews said. "But Bernard Soya had a right to life; no one deserves to die."
If convicted of first-degree murder, Powers faces a mandatory prison sentence of 20 to 60 years.
Testimony is expected to continue today.