Amari McNabb was involved in plotting and executing the plan to kill Juan Nash during a dispute at a April 2019 party, a prosecutor argued Monday in closing remarks at McNabb’s murder trial.
Jurors began deliberations at about 12:30 p.m. but were scheduled to pause for lunch a short time later.
McNabb is accused of shooting Nash during a party on Orchard Road. Co-defendants Scotty Allen and Exodus Hebert were convicted of murder last year.
Assistant State’s Attorney Aaron Fredrick told jurors that the shooting was “planned and coordinated” by the three men.
“Each had a role, each had a part in the death of Juan Nash,” said Fredrick.
If jurors find McNabb, 22, of Country Club Hills, guilty of murder, they will consider aggravated discharge of a firearm charges against him. If convicted of firing the gun during a murder, McNabb faces life in prison in addition to the 20-60- year term for murder.
The deadly dispute centered on the death several months earlier of Trevonte Kirkwood, said the prosecutor, and the role Nash’s brother played in the shooting. The three men went to the Orchard Road gathering for about 15 minutes before leaving for Pheasant Lanes bowling alley where they made a game plan to return and confront Nash, said Fredrick.
The confrontation happened quickly after the three went back to Orchard Road and saw Nash on the sidewalk, McNabb later told police. Authorities believe McNabb fired several rounds from a .380 caliber handgun. Allen also fired a weapon, as did Nash. Allen and Nash were both hit with gunfire, with Nash managing to make it to a car and drive several blocks before crashing into a house.
Hospital security video showed Hebert and McNabb make a 36-second dropoff of Allen off for treatment.
In his closing argument, defense lawyer John Miraglia accused the state of shaping facts to coincide with its theory of the case.
“They are rounding the edges to make it fit,” Miraglia told the jury.
The state’s theory includes a conclusion that McNabb obtained a .380 caliber handgun after he searched for similar weapons on the internet hours prior to the incident.
“No one puts a gun in McNabb’s hand,” said Miraglia.
The defense lawyer scoffed at the state’s theory that those involved in the slaying were members of a hybrid street gang looking for revenge for Kirkwood’s death, at one point referring sarcastically in his closing remarks to “assassination planning” by the three men.
The defense argued that McNabb was required to defend himself from the 14 rounds fired by Nash. The recollections of some witnesses are unreliable, said Miraglia, creating reasonable doubt about who fired the shot that killed Nash.
No one knows for certain what happened, Miraglia argued.
“That doesn’t mean you saddle a kid like this with murder. It’s really easy to presume he’s not innocent.”
