Urbana man found not guilty of December 8 murder | News

URBANA — After two days of testimony, video footage and forensic evidence, a jury acquitted an Urbana man of first-degree murder charges in a Dec. 8, 2023, shooting.

Turhan L. Sims, 35, was accused of shooting his friend Kadeem Moore, 34, during an argument between Moore and Moore’s girlfriend.

Sims lived for some time with the couple and his girlfriend’s children, the court was told on Tuesday.

The state continued to make its case Wednesday, citing Facebook messages between Sims and the girlfriend as evidence that appeared to suggest they were involved in some kind of romantic relationship.

When Moore’s friend, a Champaign woman, testified Tuesday, she said she and Sims did not sleep together, but messages obtained from her phone show the couple calling each other “baby” or “babe” and she saying him that wants him. in bed with her.

The day before the shooting, Sims asked the woman if she and Moore were back together, and she told him, “We don’t have labels.”

On Tuesday, Special Deputy U.S. Marshal David Griffeth testified about Sims’ Dec. 18 arrest at the Golden Hour store in Champaign.

Surveillance footage showed Sims hiding the firearm on a shelf between bags of chips before Griffeth said he ran into the pantry to try to hide.

When Griffeth entered the store, Sims came out of the storeroom, smoked a cigarette and gave up.

Forensic experts later determined that Moore was killed with a firearm that contained traces of DNA from Sims, as well as several unidentified people.

Several videos obtained from his phone also showed Sims holding the same gun.

Public defender Elizabeth Pollock brought as a witness Sims’ friend who had been with him earlier that day; he testified that while in his car, the Champaign woman took a gun from her bag and handed it to Sims.

However, he did not remember many details about the appearance of the gun, as he was angry that there was a loaded weapon in his car at all.

When Larson asked how he knew it was loaded, he replied, “Dude, every gun is loaded.”

Griffeth brought Sims to the Urbana Police Department, whereupon Detectives Darrin McCartney and Kenneth Sprague questioned Sims for about four hours.

Larson played several clips from that interview in court Wednesday in which Sims repeatedly stated variations of “I’m not a murderer” and “I’ve never killed anyone.”

He claimed to have heard gunshots outside the apartment but did not witness the shooting on December 8th.

At one point he said Moore’s girlfriend would corroborate his side of the story, and at another he said, “If she killed him and said I did it, I’m going to jail.”

McCartney told Sims he had video of him there “when it happened,” but the latest surveillance footage shows Sims leaving the apartment about 13 minutes before the shooting.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Larson showed several surveillance videos that he said showed the camera did not always activate immediately when someone came into view and relied on the technology’s ability to recognize the human form.

Pollock, however, noted that no one had video footage of Sims at the scene of the shooting, and Sims told McCartney that it was impossible for the footage to exist.

Sims, who was present throughout the trial, chose not to testify.

Larson’s closing arguments focused on Sims’ relationship with Moore’s girlfriend, saying he wanted Moore out of the picture.

“Kadeem was the problem and the solution was in his belt,” Larson said. “(Moore’s friend and her daughter) are victims of this case, they were subjected to the violence that Turhan and Kadim brought to their home.”

He also played excerpts from the body camera footage and the 911 call Moore’s girlfriend made.

“This is not the voice of someone trying to frame poor Mr. Sims,” Larson said.

Pollock’s closing arguments centered on the idea that if Sims admitted to the shooting, he would have an easy case of second- or third-degree murder rather than first-degree murder.

“All Turk (Sims’ nickname) has to do, if he did it, is say yes, I did it, and it was to protect (Moore’s girlfriend),” Pollock said.

She also questioned the girl’s decision to continue talking and spending time with Sims after the shooting and before his arrest, as well as the six- or seven-minute gap between the shooting and the 911 call.

Pollock suggested that any of several witnesses could have been responsible for the shooting, prompting Moore’s girlfriend and her daughter to conspire to say Sims did it.

“Unfortunately, I think the two most likely scenarios are that whoever was still in the apartment was terrified that Brittany would finally get it from this guy,” Pollock said.

Pollock also emphasized to the jury that if there was any reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt, the jury should find him not guilty.