Jury starts deliberating in Elgin murder case

A Kane County jury late Tuesday was deliberating the fate of a man accused in a fatal shooting at an Elgin apartment complex, which the gunman testified was self-defense but prosecutors say was a case of street justice.

Decarlo Harris, 27, is charged with first-degree murder in the May 27, 2006, slaying of 20-year-old Dwayne Johnson, who was gunned down outside 1255 Fleetwood Drive in the Buena Vista Apartments.

After a weeklong trial before Judge Patricia Piper Golden, jurors began deliberating about 6:25 p.m. They also have the option of finding Harris guilty of second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter offenses, if they do not acquit him.

Johnson's death stems from a feud between Harris and another man, LC Rankin, who at about 3:30 a.m. the day of the killing opened fire on Harris and a group of people in the parking lot of the apartments, formerly called The Mill.

Rankin's salvo of bullets hit several parked vehicles but missed those in the crowd, including Harris, who ran away but then ended up face-to-face with Rankin on the north side of the 1255 Fleetwood building.

According to trial testimony, Harris punched and choked Rankin, who had dropped his revolver. That's when Johnson showed up and Harris pulled his own handgun and opened fire when, he testified, Johnson reached for Rankin's revolver.

Prosecutors tried to debunk the self-defense claim and said Johnson was not a threat, and Harris was bent on revenge for being shot at moments earlier.

"When this defendant shot Dwayne Johnson through the heart, it was not in self-defense," prosecutor David Belshan told jurors in his closing argument, adding "the defendant operated under the rules of the Old West."

Defense attorney Glenn Jazwiec, in his own closing, argued Harris was justified in pulling the trigger, especially after having just been shot at and was now facing another man reaching for a weapon.

"Decarlo Harris was shot at several times ... the evidence in this matter shows that when he shot the gun, he was justified," Jazwiec said.

Rankin, whose last known address was in Chicago, was arrested hours after the shooting. He later plead guilty to a weapons offense in exchange for a four-year sentence and his testimony at the trial.

Johnson's death was Elgin's first homicide of 2006 and the Buena Vista, where Johnson lived, also was the scene of the city's last homicide a year earlier, which recorded a two-year high of five homicides.

Harris, formerly of the 300 block of Vandalia Street, in Elgin, was arrested four days after Johnson's death. A few months later, he was sentenced to more than 9 years in prison on unrelated drug offenses.