Jussie Smollett Found GUILTY
Chicago Tribune - Actor Jussie Smollett was convicted by a Cook County jury Thursday of staging and reporting a hate crime on himself, marking a dramatic end to a case that captivated the nation ever since he reported being attacked on a frigid night in Chicago nearly three years ago.
After a weeklong trial with testimony from 13 witnesses and lengthy closing arguments, the jury deliberated for about 9 hours over two days before finding Smollett, 39, guilty of disorderly conduct for lying to police about the January 2019 incident. Smollett faces up to three years in prison, though with no prior criminal record its far more likely he would receive a lighter sentence including possible probation.
Smollett remained stoic as the verdict was announced. He was found guilty on five of six counts.
The allegedly phony racial and homophobic attack on the then-“Empire” actor led to one of the most momentous minor felony cases in Cook County history.
Under an international media spotlight, the case spiraled into a tangle of rumors and culture-war flashpoints, competing lawsuits, a special prosecutor’s investigation, and a political crisis for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
But jurors were tasked with determining only one thing: Whether Smollett, in fact, staged the attack on himself, then lied to police about it.
Shock to absolutely no one here, at least those with a brain. But in a story filled with clowns, this trial has been an absolute circus from day 1.
Chicago Police Detective Michael Theis, the first witness called to the stand, called it unusual.
“To this day, has Mr. Smollett ever come clean about this hate crime?” deputy special prosecutor Samuel Mendenhall asked the cop.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Theis responded.
Theis also said Smollett was “not forthcoming” with investigators after he reported that he was attacked by men using homophobic and racial epithets while they allegedly assaulted him, according to a report by FoxNews.
Theis said a squad of about two dozen detectives logged some 3,000 hours investigating the actor’s claim.
You can remember the national outrage surrounding this whole thing when news broke of the "attack". People wanted answers, they wanted suspects found. And police were trying their damndest to do that. Except that Jussie definitely DID NOT want that to happen. For obvious reasons.
But he said Smollett refused to give cops his medical records or a DNA sample to compare to evidence at the scene.
The surveillance footage shows Smollett walking near the scene with the Osundario brothers a day earlier, with the siblings seen taking a cab to a nearby neighborhood.
The two then switched to an Uber and met up with Smollett, special prosecutor Dan Webb told jurors during the proceedings.
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SMollett's defense took a bizarre stance on this whole thing. Not that you can really blame them though when their client insists he's innocent and PLEADED NOT GUILTY.
His lawyers alleged that police didn’t follow up on any other leads, and rushed too quickly to presume guilt by Smollett. They also alleged that the brothers had told Jussie they wouldn’t testify if he paid them millions of dollars. Blackmailing him…
His defense team even speculated on possible motives for why the brothers might have attacked Smollett, who is gay: to scare him into hiring him as his bodyguards, or because one of the brothers was homophobic.
Smollett said he "still has a bag under his eye and a permanent black eye because of the attack." “My injuries were real,” he claimed.
This fuckin clown also paid the brothers via check! A $3,500 check to split between the two of them.
Smollett took the stand in his own defense and explained the $3,500 check by saying he paid Abimbola Osundairo for "personal training services and to buy him a lifting supplement."
The prosecution got their hands on a fucking video showing Jussie and the brothers performing a "dry-run" of the "attack". You know, like how actors do on set? In rehearsal? You can't make this up.
They also showed jurors video we all saw last summer, of the brothers in a store buying all the items depicted in that rehearsal video and "found" on Jussie.
Prosecutors contend the footage confirms the actor faked the Jan. 29, 2019, alleged attack with Nigerian brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who are expected to be key witnesses for the prosecution in the case.
Smollett’s lawyers claim the actor was really attacked — by the two brothers.
Prosecutors poked a hole in that claim Tuesday, revealing a text message sent by Smollett to one of the siblings a couple of weeks after the alleged attack, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“Brother…..I love you,” Smollett wrote to Abimbola Osundairo on Feb. 14, 2019. “I stand with you. I know 10000% you and your brother did nothing wrong and never would.”
There was also this bizarre moment that showed just how perfect Jussie's attorney team and he were for each other -
The case was also marked by an unusual amount of back and forth between the defense and the judge. At one point, a defense attorney told the judge she planned to file for a mistrial during a sidebar and claimed that the judge had lunged at her before going back to the bench. The judge said he was merely surprised that she thought there was grounds for a mistrial and denied lunging at her. He denied the motion for a mistrial.
Bye bye Jussie.