A jury on Tuesday began deliberating the fate of a man accused of shooting and killing Chicago police officer Ella French and injuring her partner after the jurors spent days viewing harrowing body-camera footage and hearing emotional testimony from police officers and other witnesses.
Emonte Morgan, 23, is charged with murder, attempted murder and other felonies for allegedly killing French, seriously injuring Carlos Yanez, Jr., and shooting at their third partner, Joshua Blas during a traffic stop on Aug 7, 2021.
Attorneys delivered closing arguments to a full courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building, presenting dueling interpretations of the evidence presented since last Tuesday.
Prosecutors displayed the two bulletproof vests of French and Yanez, arguing that the shooting was not an accident.
“This defendant left (Yanez) laying on his back looking up toward sky drowning in his own blood,” Assistant State’s Attorney Emily Stevens said. “He fired a bullet into (French’s) skull fracturing it and breaking it in several places.”
Defense attorneys, though, said that during a struggle during the traffic stop, Yanez is so close to Morgan that it’s difficult to discern what happened.
“Because of the position of Yanez on top of Monty, we don’t see what happens. You can’t make a determination whether he did that intentionally or not,” Assistant Public Defender Jennifer Hodel said.
Before the closing arguments, Judge Ursula Walowski denied a request from defense attorneys to instruct the jurors on a possible finding of a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.
French, 29, was gunned down after she and her partners around 63rd Street and Bell Avenue pulled over a vehicle occupied by Morgan, his brother, Eric Morgan and a woman Eric Morgan was dating. The shooting rattled the city and police department, and her police work elicited praise in many corners across the city, from officers she worked with to victims she helped.
The jury was sworn in on Feb. 26 and began hearing testimony the next day.
Prosecutors have said that Emonte Morgan fired multiple shots at the officers after French and two fellow officers stopped a gray SUV driven by Eric Morgan. Emonte Morgan was also shot during the confrontation.
Morgan’s defense attorneys have argued that the body camera footage during the moment of the shooting is too unclear to determine with certainty what happened.
Body camera footage from French, Yanez and Blas, who were working together that night, showed the officers pull over the SVU and begin engaging with the occupants of the car, noting an open container of alcohol and asking them to turn off the music and hand over the keys.
At one point, Eric Morgan took off running and Blas pursued him until, he testified, he heard gunshots back toward the crime scene. Footage from Yanez and French’s body cameras showed a close-up scuffle before gunshots sound. French runs around the car to help her partner, according to the footage.
Eric Morgan, in October was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the shooting.
The footage captured Blas’s return to the scene, and his anguished cries yelling the names of his partners. Prosecutors said Morgan shot at him, so he returned fire and struck him.
“French … French!” Blas yelled when he arrived, according to the footage.
Jurors also watched footage that captured the bloody aftermath of the shooting, with officers carrying French and Yanez into separate vehicles, attempting CPR and rushing to the hospital.
Yanez took the stand last week and testified that he remembers the beginning of the traffic stop, then nothing until shortly after he was shot.
“I heard gunfire right above me, and then I heard Josh screaming Yanez! Yanez! French!,” Yanez testified.
French’s mother, Elizabeth French, also told the jury about her final phone call with her daughter.
Ella had called her mother to pass the time during the drive to her district, she told jurors Tuesday. Elizabeth French then ended the call as she always did: that she loves her, to be careful and to be safe.
“She liked to call me on her way to work,” French testified, smiling through tears.