Domestic battery case ruled out in murder trial
A Cook County judge denied the state's request to inform a jury of the domestic battery charges brought against a 24-year-old Aurora man months before they say he killed his former girlfriend outside the Hanover Park beauty salon where she worked.
Cook County prosecutors say Sergio Hernandez, of the 500 block of High Street, shot 26-year-old Rocio Munez-Ramos as she entered her car parked near the corner of Barrington and Irving Park roads shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 25, 2008. They sought to introduce domestic battery charges filed against Hernandez following an earlier incident involving Munez-Ramos when Hernandez's first-degree murder trial begins next month in Rolling Meadows.
On May 5, 2008, Hernandez argued with Munez-Ramos, threatened her with a knife and cut her neck, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Andre at Thursday's hearing before Judge Thomas Fecarotta. Seven months later, a few days after the murder, Hernandez admitted in a videotaped statement to police that he shot Munez-Ramos to death, but claimed it was an accident, Andre said.
To that end, the domestic battery charge is relevant because it suggests the shooting wasn't an accident, and demonstrates the defendant's intent, argued Andre, adding that police sought out Hernandez after the murder because they knew he had dated the victim and had faced a prior domestic battery charge involving her.
Cook County Assistant Public Defender Helen Tsimouris said that "one sole incident" does not constitute a pattern of behavior, which the law requires in order for prosecutors to introduce a defendant's other crimes.
To allow the jury to hear circumstantial evidence of what happened in May between Hernandez and Munez-Ramos (who were the only people present) "would be highly prejudicial," Tsimouris said.
Fecarotta concurred, saying that to admit into evidence past behavior, the state would have had to show a "blueprint of conduct this defendant has sustained over a period of time."
"I can't allow a jury to get the impression that the defendant killed the victim simply because he had a prior altercation," he said.
Hernandez remains in Cook County Jail on $1.5 million bail. His trial is scheduled to begin July 19 in Rolling Meadows.