The man accused of killing a Metra police officer in 2006 was acquitted Friday of an earlier shooting death in Calumet City. Jurors deliberated all day Friday and found Jemetric Nicholson, 24, not guilty of fatally shooting Aaron Thomas, 20, of Chicago, and trying to kill four of Thomas’ friends on Jan. 17, 2005.
Jurors did not hear anything about the other pending cases against Nicholson, including Metra Officer Thomas Cook’s September 2006 murder and several attempted murders from a shooting spree prosecutors say Nicholson went on in Harvey that same week.
In the 2005 case, Thomas’ friends approached a red car carrying Nicholson at a Calumet City gas station around 8:30 p.m., offering to sell mix CDs and marijuana, prosecutors said. Both cars moved into the alley behind Sibley Boulevard and Oglesby Avenue to dodge security cameras.
That’s where, prosecutors said, Nicholson exited his car, rapped on Thomas’ window with a gun and, without saying a word, started firing shots. One entered Thomas’ chest, killing him.
The case went cold until March 2007, when another prosecutor investigating unsolved cases in Harvey received a letter written by Nicholson to his then-girlfriend. Details in that letter, which were not disclosed at trial, led police to put Nicholson in a new lineup.
Three of Thomas’ four friends identified him as the shooter, Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Kosman argued Thursday to close the two-day trial.
Defense attorney Mark Kusatzky argued that no physical evidence at the crime scene tied Nicholson to the murder. He also questioned how the witnesses could clearly see Nicholson’s face at night, arguing they only picked him out of the lineup because he was the only one wearing a black hoodie — just like the shooter.
Nicholson, was charged in November 2010 with first-degree murder in Cook’s death. Cook, while in uniform and sitting in a marked Metra police car near the 147th Street train station in Harvey, was shot twice in the back of his head. Authorities said Nicholson and Jeremy Lloyd killed Cook so they could steal his gun. Lloyd pleaded guilty in October 2010 to acting as a lookout for Nicholson in the slaying.
Nicholson is still awaiting trial in that case.
