DuPage jury deliberates 11-year-old murder case

Jurors deliberated into the night but went home without a verdict Thursday in the trial of a reputed gang member accused of fatally shooting a Wheaton drug dealer 11 years ago.

Raymond E. Winters, 43, formerly of Chicago, is on trial in DuPage County, charged with first-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Aldis Tucker.

Prosecutors said Tucker was pleading for his life when Winters fired a 9 mm handgun into his left eye on July 28, 1999.

The killing in front of Tucker's townhouse in Wheaton's Briarcliffe subdivision went unsolved for nearly 10 years, until a jailhouse informant told authorities he heard Winters confess, leading to his indictment last year.

Over the course of a three days this week, prosecutors portrayed Winters as a ruthless thug on the hunt for “easy money” the night he armed himself and traveled with two other men to Tucker's home to rob him.

One of Winters' former childhood friends who later encountered the defendant in prison testified he heard Winters confess to Tucker's killing.

The jury also heard testimony that a palm print matching Winters' was found on Tucker's Dodge Durango in the same area where an eyewitness saw the killer lurking just before the shooting.

“All of the evidence points to the defendant as the shooter,” Assistant State's Attorney Joe Lindt said in closing statements Thursday.

But the defense argued Winters was merely a witness, betrayed by two convicts looking for lighter prison terms.

“Their only evidence is a palm print and the words of murderers and liars,” Assistant Public Defender Jaime Escuder said.

Winters' attorneys honed in on the testimony of 35-year-old Menard McAfee, a convicted murderer who took the stand for the prosecution only to recant his story that he was with Winters the night of the killing and saw him slay Tucker.

The defense also emphasized to jurors inconsistent statements given by both McAfee and the man who first implicated Winters, 35-year-old Clinton Dixon, another convicted murderer.

Tucker was slain as he returned from a police interview after authorities searched his home as part of a drug trafficking investigation.

A neighbor testified she saw a struggle in the driveway, and then a man chasing Tucker toward the front of his home. He was shot twice in the arm and back before he collapsed and was shot in the face at close range.

“He had no money on him at the time,” Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Ruggiero said.

Winters was charged in the murder the same day he was due to be paroled in an unrelated vehicular hijacking case.

The jury resumes deliberations Friday.