 
|
|||||||||
              
|
Trial for man who ran down boy under way
Wednesday, November 24, 1999 By Jim McKinnon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
All eyes were on Deputy District Attorney Edward Borkowski as he made his opening statement yesterday at the start of the homicide trial for a North Side man accused of running down 7-year-old Raymond Michelotti while fleeing police last year.
As Borkowski quietly laid out his case, the defendant, Jamal Tait, the Michelotti family and Tait's relatives all seemed to replay that day, June 22, 1998, over in their minds.
Borkowski described how the boy had been flung more than 150 feet after being struck, and enumerated the injuries he suffered. Then, the boy's mother, Kathy Michelotti, and her brother, Jim Harvey, began looking at Tait. Kathy Michelotti stared expressionless across the courtroom, but Harvey's glare seemed to burn through Tait.
Harvey then directed his gaze to the front spectators' row, where Tait's mother, Theresa Tait Allen, sat with relatives, weeping as she kept her eyes on her hands in her lap.
Borkowski said in his opening statement that the evidence would show that Tait committed third-degree murder, a crime committed with malice. He called Tait's actions "unjustified, extremely high-risk actions." It was behavior that, by the nature of the case, warrants a murder conviction, Borkowski said.
On the day of Michelotti's death, Tait and three teen-age companions were looking for someone in the north suburbs to sell them marijuana, according to testimony at a coroner's inquest.
When residents of Spruce Run Road in Avalon demanded that Tait stop speeding on their street, Tait confronted them, resident Richard Rosell testified yesterday. Rosell said that during the confrontation, Tait pulled a pistol and threatened to shoot him.
When Tait left Spruce Run Road, the Rosells called police, and a 2.3-mile chase was on. Witnesses and police said that Tait drove as slow as 30 mph and as fast as 60 mph.
Police said they called off the pursuit when Tait turned onto hilly Gas Avenue, less than a mile from where his Chevy Blazer struck Raymond, who had been riding his bicycle near his home.
It took attorneys three days to pick a jury from a pool of 94 candidates.
Defense attorney Patrick Thomassey told the jury that the crash that killed Raymond was an accident.
"I'm not going to stand here and tell you that Jamal Tait is not guilty," Thomassey said in his opening statement. He added that he believed that Tait should be charged with a lesser crime, such as homicide by vehicle or involuntary manslaughter.
The look on Jim Harvey's face said he didn't agree, but Harvey and Kathy Michelotti said they would reserve comment until after the trial.
Tait's mother said that she and her son were remorseful about the incident.
"I pray every night for [the Michelotti family]. I pray at home, and I pray at church," Allen said during a break in the trial. "And," she added, "I have to be strong for my son. This was not a murder. It was an accident."
Testimony will resume today.
|
||||||||
