Nearly five years after 19-year-old Charles Baird was fatally shot outside a gas station in New Lenox, his mother is hopeful closure is within reach.
After the bench trial wrapped up Tuesday, Jennifer Baird said she believes the evidence against the Harvey man charged with her son’s murder is overwhelming.
“The state’s attorney, they did a fantastic job with everything that they had presented as evidence against (the defendant), and right now, I believe that this part is over and that we will get closure and we will get the justice for Charlie that he deserves,” Baird said. “He should still be here.”
Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak is deciding the case and is expected to give a verdict Wednesday afternoon.
The defendant was 16 when prosecutors say he shot Baird outside a Circle K gas station on Nelson Road in New Lenox. Baird was taken to Silver Cross Hospital in critical condition and died three days later at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
“I couldn’t even be in the hospital with him because it was COVID,” Jennifer recalled in tears Tuesday.
The defendant was arrested May 11 and charged as an adult for the shooting. The Daily Southtown isn’t naming the defendant because he was a juvenile when charged.
Prosecutor Katie Rabenda said the Circle K video footage corroborated eyewitness testimony from Marquez Whitfield, an inmate granted immunity for his testimony, who said he saw the defendant shoot Baird.
The footage also showed the shooter wearing distinctive clothing — a black long sleeve shirt, pants and shoes with a reflective white stripe — clothing the defendant was seen wearing in the months leading up to the shooting and when he was arrested, Rabenda said.
In several videos played during closing arguments, the defendant was observed walking with a bow-legged gait, a result of an injury sustained in 2019, according to Rabenda. Security footage from the gas station captured the shooter running with a distinctive stride, where his left toe and knee were pointed outward as he headed toward a stolen vehicle before it drove away, she said.
“The shooter didn’t just approach Charlie. He chased Charlie,” Rabenda said. “He chased him back toward the gas station, and even as Charlie fled for his life, fired gun shot toward Charlie.”
Additionally, DNA found on a cigarette butt recovered from the stolen Lockport vehicle matched the defendant’s, she said, placing him at the scene.
Samantha Kerins, a Will County public defender representing the accused Harvey man, argued there is no direct evidence linking him to the shooting, only DNA that places him in the vehicle, which she suggested could have been planted intentionally.
“They have a number of pieces of evidence, and they are asking you to assume basically all of them,” Kerins told Bertani-Tomczak. “Your honor, this entire investigation is focused on (the defendant), and what they do is they make their evidence fit their narrative.”
She also pointed out that when the black pants with a white stripe were tested for gunpowder residue, no traces were found.
“The state is asking you to assume that, because he had a unique walk and a track suit on Jan. 13 of 2020 that he is the same person in May of 2020 that committed the shooting at the Circle K gas station,” Kerins said.
Kerins said there was no forensic evidence to show the defendant pulled the trigger, no murder weapon found and no credible confession that implicated her client. Kerins argued Whitfield had reason to implicate the defendant as the shooter, and may have been covering for himself.
Baird parked his car at a gas pump and entered the Circle K gas station late May 10, 2020, prosecutors said. Realizing he had forgotten his wallet, he returned to his car to retrieve it and then went back inside the store, they said.
Meanwhile, store manager Patricia Hudgens noticed a black SUV, stolen from Lockport two days earlier, driving slowly around the parking lot. The SUV parked in several different spots before finally stopping at a gas pump across from Baird’s car, she said.
Whitfield said he got out of the SUV holding a gun and tried the door handle on Baird’s car. Finding it locked, he returned to the vehicle. He then handed the gun to the defendant, who exited the SUV when he saw Baird walking back toward his car, he said.
The defendant confronted Baird, ordering him not to move, Whitfield said. When Baird turned around to flee back toward the store, the defendant shot him in the back and then drove away from the scene, he said.
“My family needs closure to what happened to our beloved Charlie,” Jennifer Baird wrote on Facebook. “I know he’s watching from above and is thanking everyone who worked so hard on his case. I know he’s proud of us for never giving up on finding the person responsible for his horrible death.”
smoilanen@chicagotribune.com
