3rd convict gets new trial in Naperville drug murder

Tyrell Jackson, 25, of Villa Park, was returned Thursday from state prison to Will County Jail in Joliet. Jackson is the third of four convicts to be granted a new trial in the April 1, 2008 drug-related murder of John D. Rosales at his home in southwestern Naperville.

Updated: March 2, 2013 12:09PM

As was done for two of his four associates, a new trial has been ordered for a man convicted of the 2008 narcotics-related murder of a man in far southwestern Naperville.

Tyrell Jackson, 25, of Villa Park, was transferred Thursday from Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill to Will County Jail in Joliet. He is awaiting a Feb. 19 hearing in Will County Circuit Court.

Jackson in August 2010 was sentenced to 70 years in prison, after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the April 1, 2008 slaying of John D. Rosales. Three men from Aurora - Reginald Chandler-Martin, 26; Courtney B. Mayes, 25; and Cherrod L. Moore, 32 - were convicted of the same charge and sentenced to prison.

Third District Illinois Appellate Court panels later ruled Naperville police did not have probable cause to detain and later charge Mayes and Moore in the killing. That made the verbal and written confessions the men gave police inadmissible as evidence in their trials.

Appellate court judges in a recent 2-1 decision ruled Judge Richard C. Schoenstedt erred when he denied a motion by Jackson’s attorney to suppress statements his client made to two Naperville police detectives during an interview about seven hours after Rosales’ death.

The video and audio recording of that interview indicated Jackson received, acknowledged and waived his Miranda rights and spoke to the detectives, according to the 21-page court opinion. After denying involvement in the murder, and about 10 minutes into the interrogation, Jackson told police he “don’t wanna talk no more,” the opinion read in part.

“The detectives told (Jackson) to ‘listen,’ and confronted him with statements of others that implicated him” in the slaying, the opinion stated. Jackson several minutes later “indicated that he ‘already told (the officers he) ain’t got nothing else to say,’” and then asked if he could place a telephone call to his mother, according to the opinion.

Still, the interview continued for at least 15 more minutes, with the detectives telling Jackson to “sit there and listen” to them, the opinion read.

One of the detectives at one point asked Jackson “whether he thought that his mother could sit at trial ‘and be proud of her son, who stood up like a man and took responsibility and showed some kindness to a person that died, (and) showed some kindness to a family who lost their son,’” the opinion continued.

“Thirty minutes later, (Jackson) again asked to call his mother. The call did not occur at that time but the interview continued, and shortly thereafter (Jackson) began to cry and confessed to shooting Rosales,” the opinion stated.

Jackson also admitted committing the crime during his subsequent phone conversation with his mother.

The appellate court judges said it was “clear that (Jackson) invoked his right to remain silent” when he “stated that he ‘don’t wanna talk no more.’ Such a statement is an unequivocal and specific invocation of the defendant’s right to remain silent.”

“Only (Jackson’s) llegally obtained confessions place him at the scene” of the murder, the judges wrote. “Therefore, not only are the confessions powerful evidence, here they were a foundation” of the prosecution’s case at trial, they said.

“In sum, the trial court erred when it denied (Jackson’s) motion to suppress, because the interviewing officers did not scrupulously honor the defendant’s right to remain silent, and his statements to his mother and in writing were not sufficiently removed from the initial, illegally obtained confession to render them admissible,” the judges said. “This error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”

David E. Dial was Naperville’s chief of police at the time of the murder. Commenting in December 2011 on the appellate court decisions in the cases of Mayes and Moore, Dial defended his officers and disagreed with the courts’ findings.

“I very much respect the appellate court’s authority, but in this case, I am disappointed in their opinions,” Dial told The Sun.

There are “several hundred pages of police reports” concerning the crime, and the earlier appellate court decisions “really don’t reflect all of the facts that were contained in those reports,” Dial said.

“It was a chaotic, complex scene,” Dial said of the aftermath of the robbery and shooting. Police were “charged with protecting the community, and we accomplished that charge in that case,” he said.

“The facts are undisputed. There was a plan to rob the victim,” and Moore and Mayes were “absolute participants” in that scheme, Dial said.

Police found Mayes and Moore at Rosales’ home, “and they both had blood on their clothing, and told us they were witnesses to this matter.”

“We ultimately determined that they were suspects” in the crime, Dial said. “We gave them their Miranda rights and they gave verbal and written confessions, admitting their part in the plan to rob the victim.”

Rosales, 23, died after hosting a party that began the evening of March 31, 2008 and lasted into the early-morning hours of April 1. It was held in his townhouse on the 2500 block of Sheehan Drive, in Naperville’s Windridge neighborhood.

Police in 2008 said Rosales was targeted for robbery because he kept large amounts of money, cocaine and marijuana in his home.

Another Aurora man supplied and later hid the .22- and .32-caliber handguns used by Jackson and Chandler-Martin. Police said the two men concealed their faces with bandanas and wielded the guns as they charged through Rosales’ unlocked front door.

Chandler-Martin ordered Mayes, Moore and two other party guests to lie on the floor. When Rosales was slow to do so, Jackson shot him in the neck, police said.

Jackson and Chandler-Martin then fled in a car. The mortally-wounded Rosales grabbed two pit bull terriers, got into his car and sped away, and was found dead soon after on the median near 87th Street and Skylane Drive.

Chandler-Martin in September 2010 was sentenced to 39 years in prison.

Mayes and Moore, who are cousins, were both sentenced in 2010 to 20 years in prison on the first-degree murder charges. Schoenstedt later resentenced both on charges of armed robbery, and reduced their terms to 15 years in prison.

An appellate court panel in April denied Chandler-Martin’s request for a new trial, which was based on claims similar to those made by Jackson, Mayes and Moore.

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