End of Christmas-Trial – Monster Acquitted
By VERENA SCHMID and MARIANNE SCHWARZ
Yesterday, the trial of Steve H. and James K. has ended. They have been accused of having been involved in a drugstore robbery in which its owner had been killed. For one of them, James K., the jury returned a verdict of being guilty of felony murder. Against all expectations Steve H. has been acquitted.
 Continuation of this article
 Further information about Steve H.

End of Christmas-Trial – Monster Acquitted
By VERENA SCHMID and MARIANNE SCHWARZ
“Most people in our community are decent, hardworking citizens who pursue their own interests legally and without infringing on the rights of others. But there are also monsters in our communities – people who are willing to steal and to kill, people who disregard the rights of others.” This is how Sandra Petrocelli, the Assistant District Attorney for the State of New York, started the trial a week ago. She certainly expected that both defendants would be convicted. Though, several testimonies convinced the jury that Steve H., a sixteen-year-old black boy is innocent. James K. was sentenced to 25 years to life.
The crime they have been accused of had been committed in Harlem, the evening of 22nd December 1990. Different testimonies proved that the drugstore of Alguinaldo Nesbitt had been robbed in the evening of that day. The jury agreed that after the gangsters had tried to get the money, Mr. Nesbitt had taken his gun he usually kept under his desk, because he wanted to defend his property. It is excluded that Mr. Nesbitt had committed a suicide, so the gangster must have taken the gun violently from him and had shot him to death. The following day José Delgado, the drugstore clerk, had found the dead body of the owner behind the desk and had called the police. The Medical Examiner, James Moody, has asserted that a murder had been committed and a man was killed violently.
The trial about this Christmas murder was to punish everyone having been involved in this crime and to bring a measure of justice to Mr. Nesbitt’s killers. Though, this job was very difficult for the jury, because most of the witnesses only fought for their own advantages, like a deal to get out of prison earlier, but not for the truth. Nevertheless, it soon became clear on the basic of being identified by a reliable witness that James K. has been one of the main conspirators who may even have pulled the trigger. Other testimonies, for example of his former accomplices, affirmed his guilt, so his defense attorney, Asa Briggs, didn’t have a chance to get him a less hard verdict. Steve H.’s situation was different, because it didn’t become clear whether he had been a participant in this crime as a lookout or whether he had been in the drugstore just by coincidence. In the end, his lawyer, Miss O’Brien, managed to convince the jury to give a verdict of ‘not guilty’ because of the principle of every defendant being innocent until proven guilty.
The inhabitants of Harlem of course hope that this decision won’t show negative results in the future, because they still didn’t get over of what had happened on 22nd December. The first reaction of a neighborhood resident was just that he didn’t understand: “People getting killed and everything and it ain’t right but I ain’t shocked none. They killed a little girl just about two months ago and she was just sitting on her stoop.” In a press conference, Mayor Rudy Guilliani tried reassure the citizens and said that he was determined to stop crime in all areas of the city. “The idea that we’re just trying to stop crime in white or middle-class areas is nonsense. Everyone living in the city deserves the same protection”.
The only thing the inhabitants can hope after this judgement is that this intention will save other decent, hardworking citizens from the monsters in our communities – like the one that has been acquitted yesterday.
Quotations from MONSTER (Walter Dean Myers)