Jury still out on 2007 Villa Park murder case Saturday

A DuPage County jury went home without a verdict Friday in the trial of a Chicago man accused in a 2007 home invasion and robbery that left a Villa Park man beaten to death.

Semaj Walker, 25, is the last of four suspects charged with murder, home invasion and robbery in the death of 46-year-old James Keniski. Jurors deliberated about four hours before Judge Daniel Guerin dismissed them for the night. Deliberations resume Saturday.

Prosecutor Robert Stanker said Keniski was spending an evening with his wife on May 16, 2007, when four men came to his house under the ruse of a drug deal, then savagely beat him for his wallet and credit cards.

Although Walker claimed he was wrongly accused, two of his former co-defendants identified him at trial this week as the aggressor who pushed the victim over a banister — causing him to fall 10 feet — and then stomped him repeatedly in the head and torso.

Keniski died about a week later.

“There were so many shoe imprints (on the victim) that you couldn't tell where one ended and another began,” Assistant State's Attorney Bernard Murray said.

The victim's wife, Keena Keniski, testified that another man, Ray Moore of Chicago, blocked her from leaving her bedroom while her husband was robbed and beaten. She later identified Moore and the other two suspects, Joshua Gordon and Dywayne Head, in photo lineups, but said she did not get a good look at the attacker.

Public defenders Jeff York and George Ford argued that a lack of physical evidence linking Walker to the murder should leave reasonable doubt in the jury's mind.

They also attacked the testimony of Gordon and Head, who over the course of the investigation told police multiple accounts of the robbery. The men, both of Chicago, later received reduced prison terms in exchange for taking the stand against Walker.

“The foundation of their case is built on lies and liars,” York said.

But prosecutor Steven Knight contended Gordon and Head independently corroborated details of the robbery, and noted that Head and Walker were cousins and close friends. The fact that Walker was on the lam for months, Knight added, only highlighted the defendant's “consciousness of guilt.”

“Time is up,” he said. “(Walker) can no longer hide.”

A jury found Moore guilty of murder in 2009 under an Illinois law that holds all participants in a crime accountable when the crime results in murder. He is now serving 50 years.