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URBANA – Prosecutors continued to build their case on Tuesday in the trial of a Montgomery man accused of the March 2018 murder of an 18-year-old Urbana in Champaign.
When questioned by two police detectives just three days after Ricky Green was shot, Michael Chatman categorically denied being responsible for the death of a man he described as his “buddy” or friend.
Detective David Allen, now retired, of Champaign Police said that he and his supervisor, Sgt. Dennis Baltzell, interviewed Chatman for approximately 50 minutes on March 25, 2018.
Jurors watched the interview and were able to follow along with written transcripts.
Chatman, now 21, admitted that he and Michael Simmons were in a car with Mr. Green and Kotia Fairman that evening.
The men had picked up Fairman in his car and ended up in the Shadowwood mobile home park, just east of North Market Street in Champaign. They had drunk brandy and smoked cannabis, Chatman said.
In his statement to police, Chatman claimed Mr. Green wanted to “hook up” with him and Simmons that day, but prosecutors believe it was the other way around and that Chatman and Simmons, now 23, had planned to steal Mr. Le Green of his handgun, which they said was used to kill him. The murder weapon has never been found.
Police were already in the mobile home park for another call early this Friday morning when they ran into Fairman with her car stopped in the middle of Apricot Drive and a few doors left open. The men they had seen in the car with her were gone.
Hearing a noise and shortly after receiving a shooting call, officers found Mr. Green fatally injured in the 0-100 block of Juniper Drive, approximately 150 yards from where the car was located.
In the car’s flight path, police found a single black boot, believed to belong to Mr. Green.
Near his body, police found other beige Timberland boots, believed to be Chatman’s, and two used bullet casings that an Illinois State Crime Lab forensic scientist said came from the same gun but could not not from a .357 Magnum handgun. The scientist said she had never received a weapon with which to compare the cartridge cases.
A .357 revolver had been found in the back seat on the floor of the car on Apricot. Chatman pleaded guilty in August 2019 to possession of the weapon. In this car was also the identification of Simmons.
Simmons, from Urbana, is also charged with first degree murder in Mr. Green’s death and is awaiting trial.
In the interview, Chatman repeatedly told Allen and Baltzell that the three men got out of the car on Apricot and ran because they saw police in the area. Chatman said they broke up and had no idea how Mr. Green was shot.
“We were all running, but I don’t know what happened,” Chatman said.
“He was on the ground screaming for help,” Allen said of Mr. Green. “One of those shots killed him. Your boots were there. He’s dead and your other boot came off. You ran away from your buddy and let him bleed. Was it premeditated? Did you prepare Ricky to be killed? “
“I don’t know about the lack of shooting. I didn’t see anything, “Chatman replied.” I don’t know what happened. We all got out of the car and parted ways. Can I stop talking to you, because I have nothing to do with this. “
In another testimony on Tuesday, Allen said he linked Chatman to 17 different Facebook accounts and a series of messages with Mr. Green hours before his death.
The case continues today before Judge Randy Rosenbaum.
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