A truck driver on his way home from work on Oct. 27, 1994, stopped to help a victim when he saw several people beating the man in the street near his Aurora home.
Moments later, Keith Smith watched in horror as one of the attackers walked to within a few feet of the victim, raised his arm and fired a shot into Armando Mendez’s head, killing him.
In Kane County Circuit Court Friday, Smith pointed to Bonzell L. Joyner as the man who fired that shot. Gang members mistakenly believed Mendez was a rival gang member who had invaded their territory.
Smith testified that the defendant walked away from the scene as a dazed and battered Mendez was desperately trying to escape the beating at an Aurora gasoline station.
Smith said that a few minutes later the defendant “reappeared with something wrapped and lifted his arm toward Mr. Mendez’s head. Then I heard the noise.”
Under questioning from Assistant State’s Atty. Patrick Crimmins, Smith said he got a look at the shooter’s face, one he recognized because “during 1994, it wasn’t unusual to come home and have this man sitting on my front stoop.”
Even though Smith has testified at the trials of several other defendants in the case, he had never before been asked by authorities to identify the shooter.
“This is the first time I’ve seen him since then,” Smith said under questioning by Assistant Public Defender Brenda Covey.
Ten Aurora street gang members were initially charged with killing Mendez, a College of DuPage student whose car had run out of gas on his way home from work the night he was killed.
One of those men, Darryl Bailey, testified that he “saw Lamar pop out of a car with a gun,” using Joyner’s middle name. At that point Bailey, who signed a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony, said he turned and ran, then he heard a gunshot.
But Joyner’s attorney, Public Defender David Kliment aggressively attacked the former gang member’s credibility, pointing out that he had violated his initial agreement with prosecutors.
