Last Derrion Albert Beating Defendant Found Guilty
CHICAGO (WBBM/CBS) -- The last of the trials related to the brutal and deadly beating of Fenger High School honor student Derrion Albert is over.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's David Roe reports, five people have now been convicted of having a part in Albert's Sept. 24, 2009, murder.
Lapoleon Colbert, 20, broke down into tears Wednesday as the jury rendered its verdict – guilty of first degree murder.
Prosecutors contended Colbert kicked and stomped Albert during the cell phone video-recorded beating.
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Police say Colbert originally denied having any part in the murder when he was questioned, and later couldn't find himself in the videotape. But the third time he was questioned, he admitted that he was on the tape kicking Albert in the head, stomping him, and finally jumping on his torso.
During trial earlier this week, Colbert's attorney, Michael Clancy, tried to have the case thrown out, repeating to Judge Nicholas R. Ford what he'd already argued to jurors during opening statements: Colbert was not part of any mob action, since he wasn't part of the ongoing fight between kids who lived in "The Ville" neighborhood around Fenger, 11220 S. Wallace St., and kids who bused in from Altgeld Gardens near 130th Street. And Albert himself taunted kids from the Gardens, Clancy said.
Colbert only delivered a kick to Albert's head after the fight, Clancy said earlier this week
Ford denied his motion, saying Colbert accepted the consequences of what the mob did as soon as he joined them.
On the day he was killed, Albert had been walking home past the Agape Community Center, 342 W. 111th St., when he was caught in the middle of the fight.
The mob swarmed around Derrion as he was trying to get home from school.
Another defendant, Silvonus Shannon, 20, was sentenced to 32 years in prison for his part in the beating. A 15-year-old codefendant was sentenced to prison until he's 21 on Jan. 19, while Eric Carson pleaded guilty to the murder on Jan. 21 and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
A fifth defendant, Eugene Riley, 20, was convicted last month and is set to be sentenced June 14.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
