Home invasion trial centers on marijuana feud

Angry.

A Cook County prosecutor repeatedly used that word to describe Scott Evangelista Tuesday during opening remarks in the Palatine man's trial on charges of home invasion at his former girlfriend's residence.

Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Crowe characterized Evangelista as a man upset after a breakup with his girlfriend and furious at her refusal to return the marijuana he asked her to hold for him.

Defense attorney Thomas Glasgow refuted the state's claims, insisting "this isn't a case about anger, it's a case about a lovesick boy."

However, the portrait prosecutors painted of the then 19-year-old Evangelista did not match Glasgow's. Crowe's description suggested a determined, volatile individual who approached the teenage girl in his car as she walked with a friend near her home the afternoon of March 15, demanding she return the marijuana. When she refused, Crowe said, Evangelista drove in reverse to the girl's driveway, got out of his car and again demanded the drugs, Crowe said.

After she refused a second time, Evangelista drove away but returned about 90 minutes later and began yelling and pounding on the apartment door, eventually pushing his way inside, Crowe said. Once inside, Evangelista slapped, choked and screamed at the girl until she told him where the marijuana was, after which he left, Crowe said.

In his opening statement, Glasgow denied prosecutors' claims that Evangelista burst into the home and attacked the girl, insisting that his client defended himself when she hit him. Glasgow also offered the jury an explanation for Evangelista's eagerness to retrieve the marijuana. The now 20-year-old suffers from Tourette Syndrome, a neurobiological disease characterized by sudden, involuntary movement and/or vocal outbursts for which smoking marijuana provides relief, Glasgow said.

Because his parents don't approve of marijuana, Evangelista gave his supply to the girl to hold, Glasgow said. Her refusal to return it combined with their breakup prompted the outburst, which Glasgow attributed to immaturity.

"He became irrational," said Glasgow. "Emotions run high when you're young."

Glasgow said that Evangelista left immediately after he got the drugs and that he voluntarily turned himself into police early the next morning.

Prosecutors called as their first witness the now 17-year-old girl, who testified that she and Evangelista had been dating about eight months when the incident occurred.

After she refused to turn over the drugs the first time, "(Evangelista) got really, really mad" she said.

When he returned 90 minutes later, "he was trying to break in my house," she said. The girl said she eventually opened the door a crack and Evangelista pushed his way in, damaging the door in the process, and began rummaging around for the marijuana.

Under cross examination from defense attorney Stephanie Olsson, the girl admitted she occasionally smoked marijuana with Evangelista and that he had given her some the day before the incident. She also admitted refusing to return it. Additionally, she admitted that she did not call police after Evangelista first approached her on the street and in the driveway, nor during the 10 minutes she claims he was pounding on her door.

Asked to identify photos of the door Evangelista allegedly pushed through, the girl admitted both the doorknob and the deadbolt remained attached to the door.

Testimony continues Wednesday in Rolling Meadows.