Christopher White loved his kids, his family, his friends and his low-rider, mostly in that order.
White, who succumbed to gunshot wounds he sustained just short of six months prior in a 2015 gang shooting that also killed 16-year-old Lauren Calvillo in the City of Hammond’s Little Waco section, was always just a joy to be around with his red hair and brown eyes, his sister, Penny Robinson, said Monday afternoon during the sixth day of Eduardo “Count Eddie” Luciano’s trial at the U.S. District Courthouse in Hammond. Robinson was older than White, so she often acted as a mother figure to him as well, she said tearfully on the stand.
White was visiting relatives on the 5500 block of Beall Avenue June 29, 2015, Robinson said, and though he’d heard there was going to be a vigil for a slain Latin King in the neighborhood, he wasn’t a part of it. He was, however, caught in the crossfire and rushed to a local hospital for his injuries, she said.
“When we got to (the hospital), they had him in the ER on a gurney taking him to surgery,” Robinson said, crying. “We barely got the chance to tell him we loved him.”
White, who was left paraplegic from his injuries, was left in a coma for some time and had several more surgeries, including one that removed part of his skull, Robinson said. Other than going to work, she never left his side, she said.
“He was scared he was going to die,” she said.
The court also picked up where it left off Friday with testimony of Ivan “Bola” Reyes, one of the five men indicted in White’s and Calvillo’s deaths. At times argumentative with Luciano’s attorney, John Cantrell, Reyes’ account of the shooting largely matched those of Israel “Tank” Garza and Jeron “Shadow” Williams.
U.S. Assistant Attorney David Nozick played for the court the video of a time federal agents questioned Reyes about his involvement in the shooting. In it, Reyes repeatedly asked the agents whether he’d be allowed to leave after he told them what he knew.
“So you went in there thinking you could give some information and get out?” Cantrell asked. “You said Eddie was calling the shots.”
“If he wanted to shoot (into the vigil), he’d have gone,” Reyes said. “(Luciano and Williams) were pretending they wanted to do it, but they sent us.”
The court also heard from Mario Vega, the grandfather to one of Reyes’s children, who testified that even though he never liked Reyes and didn’t know for what it was involved, he helped Reyes destroy the rifle Castro used in the shooting because Reyes “didn’t know how to use” his work equipment.
Cantrell called to the stand Luciano’s ex-wife, Suzanna Gonzalez; and former mother-in-law Mary Estrada, who both testified that Luciano was at the hospital with Gonzalez from June 27 to June 30 — when she gave birth to their third daughter — and identified pictures taken during those three days. On cross examination, Gonzalez said she was unable to find the digital pictures with metadata that would’ve confirmed the dates the pictures were taken; and Estrada said that Luciano did leave the hospital around 2 p.m. June 29 to take their two older daughters to get something to eat.
The court later recalled Williams to the stand to clarify calls between him and Luciano’s sister, who he was dating at the time.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
