A trial opened Tuesday for an East Chicago man charged with two counts of murder in a couple’s 2021 slaying.
Deputy Prosecutor Keith Anderson will argue Gary Shanklin, 23, of the 4800 block of Walsh Avenue, killed Nalisha D. Martin, 43, of Hammond, and Christopher Burks, 52, of Chicago.
Shanklin has pleaded not guilty. He was extradited from a jail in Coles County, Ill. in 2023.
Defense lawyer Brandon Hicks is expected to argue the shooting was in self-defense and that Burks was an aggressor.
East Chicago Police were called at 12:29 p.m. Oct. 13, 2021 to the 1200 block of West 149th Street where a silver Chevrolet Impala hit a house.
They found Martin shot in the car, while Burks was lying across the street in a nearby alley, charges state. The passenger side window was shattered, with a bullet casing found on the seat inside.
Burks was wounded in the right shoulder, while Martin was shot twice, once in the “front” and in her back. Both were transported to St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago. Burks died there, while Martin was airlifted to a Chicago trauma hospital where she died shortly thereafter.
Minutes after the call, Shanklin was reported shot in the shoulder down the street on the 4800 block of Walsh Avenue, near his home, police said.
At the hospital, Shanklin claimed to detectives he was walking to a gas station near his house when he heard gunshots and ran, then noticed he was shot.
When police were about to perform a gun residue test on his hands, he told them he wanted to wash some blood off his hands. He was told that wouldn’t affect the test.
“I didn’t shoot nobody, I don’t own a firearm,” he said suddenly, according to court documents.
The test came back positive and there were fresh cuts on his hands, detectives wrote. Shanklin said he fell on gravel trying to escape, documents said.
“I don’t even own a gun,” he said.
Security footage showed a man running from the scene wearing Shanklin’s same clothes, the affidavit states.
mcolias@post-trib.com