Weather delays wrestler’s home invasion trial
Another trial in DuPage County court was postponed Friday after two jurors were unable to attend because of the weather.
Testimony in the Kerin Ramirez home invasion trial will now resume Tuesday.
The proceedings opened Wednesday but hit a snag when severe flooding shut down the courthouse in Wheaton a day later.
Judge George Bakalis further postponed matters on Friday after one member of the jury and one alternate called in saying they couldn’t make it.
Attorneys in the case said both jurors had issues related to the weather. One of them was a single mother whose basement flooded.
The delay came a day after flooding forced Judge Daniel Guerin to postpone opening statements in the high-profile trial of Johnny Borizov, who is accused of masterminding the March 2010 murders of three members of a Darien family.
That case was back in court Friday for selection of one remaining alternate juror, but officials said opening statements won’t happen until Tuesday.
Ramirez, 21, of Addison, is accused of entering the Carol Stream-area home of a Wood Dale police sergeant in September 2011.
On Wednesday, the officer testified he shot Ramirez, a former Harper College wrestler, after Ramirez refused to leave his home and attacked him.
The defense contends the veteran officer was the aggressor and that Ramirez accidentally wandered into the house because he was drunk and mistook it for a friend’s house six doors away.
If convicted, Ramirez could face up to 30 years in prison.