Sept. 14--One of two teens charged in the 2013 beating death of a West Side man over a cigarette was acquitted of the charges while the teen's co-defendant was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the case, officials said.
William Davis, 19, was found not guilty by a jury Sept. 11 of first-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter while co-defendant Derrick Burns, 18, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, according to court records.
The teens were initially charged with aggravated battery as juveniles, but the charges were upgraded to first-degree murder and they were charged as adults. At the time, Burns was 15 and Davis was 16.
The two were charged with the Dec. 13, 2012, death of Antoine Baker, 43, after the Cook County medical examiner's office determined the man's death was a homicide, prosecutors said at the time.
The office concluded that Baker, of the 1400 block of West Roosevelt Road, died of an asthma attack that was brought on by the beating.
Prosecutors had argued that Baker, Burns and Davis were at a home in the 1000 block of North LeClaire Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood about 10:45 p.m. when the teens began arguing with Baker over a cigarette.
According to testimony, Davis was present for the beating but did not get involved in the fight and did not encourage Burns.
At trial, the medical examiner's office testified that while the fight may have contributed to Baker's death the cause of death was the asthma attack and "none of the injuries suffered in the fight were fatal," Davis' lawyers, Emmanuel Andre and Anthony W. Hill, said in a statement.
According to the statement, Baker, who was also a smoker, had a lethal dose of heroin in his system and had snorted the heroin less than an hour before his death. Baker had had a history of "repeated emergency medical treatment for heroin induced asthma attacks in the month leading up to his death," according to Davis' lawyers.
"Children are different. Sixteen year old William should never have been charged as an adult in the first place," Andre said in a statement. "This was a just verdict given the facts of the case."
