Excerpts from nbc5chicago.com:
Separate juries on Wednesday found Devin Barron and Jaylen Saulsberry guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting of retired Chicago FD Lieutenant Dwain Williams, who Cook County prosecutors said was confronted at gunpoint by a carjacking crew in December 2020 as he left a gourmet popcorn shop.
The jury in Barron’s trial returned their verdict about five hours after deliberations began and immediately after the jury in Saulsberry’s trial retired to begin their own discussions. It took less than two hours for the second panel to reach its decision.
When their trials began last week, there were three defendants and three separate juries.
But in a surprise on Tuesday, the third co-defendant, Dwain Johnson, took the stand to testify against Barron and Saulsberry after Johnson accepted a plea offer from the state’s attorney’s office mid-trial that saw his murder charge reduced.
Johnson, 20, pleaded guilty to a count of aggravated battery with a firearm, according to court records. Prosecutors said they would seek the maximum 30-year sentence against him.
A fourth defendant, a teenage boy who was 15 at the time of Williams’ death, had his case adjudicated in juvenile court and also testified against Barron and Saulsberry. Prosecutors said he was back in school and had stayed out of trouble.
All four were part of a carjacking crew that targeted Williams’ Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV after they spotted it while driving.
With the 15-year-old behind the wheel of a stolen Ford Fusion sedan, the crew trailed Williams until he parked outside a store and then waited for him to return.
Barron and Saulsberry got out of the stolen Ford with guns drawn and confronted Williams as he returned to his Jeep.
Williams, a concealed-carry holder, drew his own gun and exchanged fire with the crew before they fled. Williams was shot in the abdomen and died a short time later.
Investigators were able to track the group using cellphone data and surveillance footage.
DNA evidence implicating Saulsberry was recovered from a shoe that one of the gunmen left behind as he fled, and a fingerprint on a granola bar found in the back seat of the Ford when it was recovered in Tinley Park matched Barron’s, prosecutors said.
Attorneys for both defendants spent much of their closing arguments Wednesday assailing the integrity and reliability of testimony by the teenager and Johnson.
