Jury has case, options in Van Dyke murder trial

As a jury began deliberating whether to convict him of the murder of black teenager Laquan McDonald on Thursday, Jason Van Dyke got one piece of bad news after another.

Around 3 p.m., about three hours after closing arguments ended, he left the courthouse after he learned his daughter had been threatened at school, he said.

A little over an hour later, he was racing back to the courtroom, summoned by Judge Vincent Gaughan to weigh in on a question from the jury. When he arrived a few minutes late, Gaughan threatened to revoke his bail and have him locked up.

After the jury was dismissed for the day, Van Dyke, 40, who is white, got more bad news - but some good news, too.

The bad news: A man and a woman who sat in the jury box through three weeks of his trial said they would have voted him guilty or were leaning that way.

The good news for Van Dyke: They won't get to vote - both were alternate jurors who spoke to reporters after the judge sequestered their peers and dismissed them from the case.

• See the rest of the report from the Chicago Sun-Times, chicago.suntimes.com.