Opening statements start in Wheeling teen's death

Senseless.

That's the word Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Andre used to describe the 2006 death of 15-year-old Chavario White, who authorities say was gunned down by a teenage gang member on a mission.

White, a Buffalo Grove High School student, "was killed because he happened to be standing at the wrong place at the wrong time," Andre said Monday afternoon as the bench trial of White's accused killer Juan Gomez began before Judge Thomas Fecarotta in Rolling Meadows.

Gomez, 19, was on a "mission" to shoot a rival gang member, Andre said in his opening statement, and when he couldn't find one, he shot White in the back of the head.

"This defendant was out hunting that night: not deer, or pheasant or quail, but another human being," Andre said.

Defense attorney Amanda Waechter disputed prosecutors' version of the events of Sept. 3, 2006 outside White's townhouse on Wheeling's Colonial Drive, saying neither DNA nor fingerprints connect Gomez to the murder.

The evidence will not prove Gomez's guilt, Waechter said, especially not the evidence offered by prosecution witness Juan Lopez-Tafoya, the Prospect Heights man who authorities say drove the getaway car.

Lopez-Tafoya pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm last September and was sentenced to a total of 30 years. He will have to complete at least 50 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

At his sentencing, Lopez-Tafoya said he dropped off two men, one of whom carried a shotgun, and watched them cross a bridge. He then heard a gunshot and saw the men return with the gun to the car after which the trio drove away.

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped first-degree murder charges against the 26-year-old Lopez-Tafoya, who is expected to testify against Gomez.

Neither Lopez-Tafoya nor another witness supposedly present that night implicated Gomez at the time, Waechter said. They did not do so until more than a year after the murder, she said, when they were in custody on other charges.

"The police were looking to close a case," said Waechter, who suggested Lopez-Tafoya helped them do it.

Christine Hyde, a neighbor of White's and a friend of his late mother Terri, described hearing two blasts and running outside to find White lying on the ground and his friends exclaiming that he had been shot. Hyde broke down on the stand as she recalled trying to administer CPR but being unable to do so because White's mouth was full of blood. It was then that she noticed his dilated pupils.

"I knew he was gone," she said, sobbing.

Wheeling police officer Jeremy Hoffman, the first officer on the scene, said he and his canine partner Duke followed a human scent trail that originated at bushes located near the murder site. The trail continued southwest through a wooded area known as Childerley Park, which includes a creek and a pedestrian bridge leading to a residential area comprised of single family houses. Duke lost the scent after they crossed the bridge, Hoffman said.

Testimony resumes Tuesday in Rolling Meadows.