David Salazar and David Juan Salazar told police conflicting stories about a shooting that killed a teenager in Aurora last year, Kane County jurors were told Thursday.
David Salazar, 20, of the 700 block of South Loucks Street, Aurora, is on trial in Kane County Judge Patricia Piper Golden’s courtroom for murder in connection with the April 10, 2002, death of Leo Griffin Jr., 16.
David Juan Salazar, 24, of the 500 block of Charles Street, Aurora, also is charged with murder, but prosecutors have said those charges will be dropped because he testified Thursday against David Salazar. The two men are not related.
When questioned by police a day after the shooting, David Salazar said he did not intend to shoot anyone, Aurora Police Detective Greg Spayeth has testified. David Salazar was walking to the gas station to buy milk for his infant son when he saw two groups of men sitting on porches. Believing them to be members of a rival gang, he panicked when one of the men opened the door to a house.
“He went inside the house and I ran, and that’s when it happened,” David Salazar said during a videotaped statement played for jurors Thursday. The statement was recorded at the Aurora Police Station on April 11, 2002.
But David Juan Salazar testified that the shooting was intentional. The two men were in an apartment building on the 300 block of West New York Street when David Salazar said he had seen rival gang members in the area, David Juan Salazar said.
Prosecutors said David Juan Salazar told them David Salazar displayed a gun and said he was going to take care of business.
When he testified, however, David Juan Salazar denied the statement.
Police recorded two interviews with David Juan Salazar after the murder, but, when he testified, he acknowledged giving prosecutors new information this week. David Juan Salazar told Assistant State’s Atty. Sal LoPiccolo Wednesday that David Salazar changed his clothes at the apartment after the shooting and admitted on cross-examination that he had never mentioned that to authorities.
Witnesses said the assailant was wearing a black, hooded shirt but could not otherwise identify him.
