Crime & Safety

Jury Deliberates in Fatal Drunken Crash Case

The jury has gone into deliberations in the case against Steger man Cecil Conner.

Cecil Conner was a drunken mess when he ran a car into a tree, killing his girlfriend's 5-year-old son.

No one disputes that, but his lawyer claims a cop coerced Conner to get behind the wheel so he could arrest him for drunken driving while prosecutors contend both Conner and the girlfriend are liars.

It's now up to a jury of seven women and five men to figure out who to believe.

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The case broke about 10:30 a.m. and the jury is still deliberating on Conner's guilt or innocence.

Even Conner admitted under oath that he was drunk and driving when he crashed a 1997 Chevy Cavalier into a tree in Steger in the early morning hours of May 10.

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In the wreck, Michael Langford, the young son of Conner's girlfriend, Kathie LaFond, was killed.

But Conner's attorney, Jeff Tomczak, argued that his client should not be judged on what happened that morning in Steger. The case hinges on what went down during a traffic stop in Chicago Height about 20 minutes before.

A sober LaFond was originally driving, with Conner in the passenger seat and Langford sleeping in a booster seat in the back, but was pulled over by Chicago Heights Police Officer Chris Felicetti.

Felicetti arrested LaFond for driving without a valid license. Felicetti earlier testified that he was unaware that Conner was intoxicated and that he gave him the option to drive the car away to avoid having it towed. Conner testified that Felicetti ordered him to drive the car to the police station. If he refused to do so, Conner said, he feared Felicetti was going to arrest him.

"What do you think's going to happen when a drunk gets to the police station?" Tomczak asked the jury, then dramatized his speculation, saying, "Oh ho, do I smell alcohol on your breath?"

While Tomczak accused Felicetti of lying under oath and "covering his butt, protecting himself," Assistant State's Attorney Debbie Mills said it was Conner and LaFond who were making up stories on the witness stand.

LaFond testified that she told Felicetti three times that Conner was drunk and that she was his designated driver, and that she never asked the officer to let him take the car. But prosecution witness Kevin Kutta, a security supervisor at St. James Hospital, where Michael was taken after the crash, contradicted her.

Kutta testified that LaFond looked around the hospital waiting room to make sure the rest of her family had gone outside to smoke before confiding in the dead boy's godmother that, "I need to tell you something. I was pulled over by the police and arrested, and I asked the police to please let Cecil take the baby home. That's how he got the keys. That's how he got the car. That's how he got the baby."

"She didn't realize that she had been overheard by the security officer, this unbiased security officer," Mills said.

Mills also pointed out that LaFond filed a lawsuit against Felicetti, Conner and the town of Chicago Heights within 48 hours of her son's death, then denied under oath that she was aware she stood to profit from the legal action.

Mills also pointed out that Conner reportedly stated at various points after the crash that he had been cut off by a silver vehicle, that he had been menaced by gun-waving Hispanics, that he had not been drinking, and that he was only making a trip to a 7-Eleven to get "his son" something to eat.

None of these claims surfaced during Conner's testimony.

Mills went on to tell the jury that not only were Conner and LaFond lying to them, "They were also deceptive to Officer Felicetti" in covering up that Conner was drunk.


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