Alleged Gang Member Convicted of Cop Killing
By Chris Bentley in News on Sep 29, 2011 6:15PM
Shawn Gaston
Officer Alejandro “Alex” Valadez, 27, was following up on a report of shots fired in the 6000 block of South Hermitage June 1, 2009 when he was shot and killed.
Prosecutors told the jury Gaston and two friends opened fire from a car on Valadez and other officers, all in plainclothes, the Tribune reported:
Police later found three guns — a .357-caliber revolver, a .40-caliber handgun and a rifle — in the car's trunk, prosecutors said. The shots that struck Valadez were fired from the revolver, prosecutors said.
But a police forensic scientist testified Monday that none of the DNA taken from those three weapons matched Gaston's, the Sun-Times reported. It is possible, Illinois State
Police forensic scientist Megan Neff said, that Gaston could have touched the weapon without leaving any DNA behind.
Gaston’s attorney told jurors the defendant was “a good kid,” and suggested the lack of DNA evidence could indicate a police conspiracy:
“They're not telling the truth,” attorney John Paul Carroll said during closing arguments. “Something is going on here.”But [Cook County State’s Attorney Anita] Alvarez, personally prosecuting the case, countered that the evidence — not a conspiracy — tied Gaston to Valadez's killing.
“This is not CSI,” Alvarez told jurors in reference to the popular TV series. “This is not some murder mystery movie. This is Chicago. This is Englewood. This is reality.”
Neff testified that DNA from Gaston’s two co-defendants was found on a pistol and the revolver that reportedly killed Valadez. Kevin Walker and Christopher Harris are also charged in the murder and will be tried later.