Detective: Knife handle was near where victim fell

A Lake County sheriff's detective testified Wednesday he found the handle of the knife that killed Cydric Jones near where Jones collapsed and died.

The testimony came in the second day of James Webb's trial for first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 2008 stabbing death of the Waukegan man.

Police said Webb, 24, of Round Lake, killed Jones, 36, during an argument over a drug debt at Brentwood and Golfview drives in Round Lake Beach.

After being stabbed, Jones turned and ran a little more than two blocks on Kildeer Drive before he stopped at a house and collapsed.

The steak knife blade was thrust so deep into Jones' chest that it broke off at the handle, prosecutors said.

Wendell Russell, who is assigned to the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said he was in charge of a detail of 30 investigators and evidence technicians who searched Kildeer Drive just hours after Jones was killed.

Russell said the team searched from the spot where Jones was stabbed and followed his route south on Kildeer Drive.

He said he was in the back yard of a house immediately north of where Jones collapsed when he discovered the knife handle and turned it over to evidence technicians.

In his opening statement Tuesday, Assistant State's Attorney Steven Derue said Webb chased Jones and turned back from the chase only after seeing him collapsed.

Derue said Webb threw away the knife handle in an attempt to hide the evidence.

Jones' defense attorney Eric Rinehart said in his opening statement that his client, who stabbed Jones only after Jones attacked him, did not chase Jones.