Bob Cook spent nine years waiting for the trial of the man accused of killing his brother, but after 25 hours of deliberation, the jury remained deadlocked Friday, resulting in a mistrial.
It may surprise some that Cook, rather than expressing bitterness, expressed gratitude for the work of the jurors and the outcome of the trial at the Cook County courthouse in Markham.
“They put up with a lot,” Cook said of the jurors. “They spent two weeks on that trial, took two weeks out of their lives, and I know most of them worked very hard. It’s our understanding that 10 of the jurors voted guilty and only two voted not guilty.
“And I’m grateful for that because it means he can be retried. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office is going to retry the case Jan. 6 of next year. So we get another crack at justice, and that wouldn’t have happened with a not-guilty verdict.”
Jemetric Nicholson, 28, is charged with first-degree murder in the September 2006 death of Metra police officer Thomas Cook, a 43-year-old husband and father of two who was shot twice in the back of the head while sitting in a squad car at the 147th Street station in Harvey. He was working overtime, investigating robberies of commuters near the station. He was the first Metra officer killed in the line of duty.
Bob Cook has spent 29 years watching jury trials as a Cook County deputy sheriff, currently assigned to the courthouse in Bridgeview.
“People kept coming up to me as we waited (for a verdict), asking me, ‘What do you think is going on?’ I told them I didn’t have a clue,” Cook said. “I had never seen a jury deliberate that long in a murder trial, and I never saw a jury come back hung after being out that long.”
Cook vividly recalls the night that police officers in his south suburb came knocking at the door, beginning a process he describes as a “nightmare.”
“My wife and I had just returned from bowling,” he said. “Wednesday night was always our bowling night, and I was tired, had to get up for work the next day, so I had gone up to bed when there was a knock on the door. It was about 11 p.m. I grabbed my flashlight and my service revolver and went downstairs to see who was there and saw there were some police officers standing at the front door.”
They told Cook to call his brother’s home in northwest Indiana but didn’t say why. When Cook called, a Riverdale police officer answered the phone. Thomas Cook had spent 10 years as a Riverdale officer before joining Metra.
“He’s the one who told me my brother had been shot and was dead,” Bob Cook recalled.
He and his wife drove down Interstate 294 to Indiana, and when they arrived, Cook asked another Riverdale officer at his brother’s home to drive him to the scene of the crime.
“It was probably after 1 a.m. by then, and when we arrived, the entire scene was lit up,” Cook remembered. “There were all these police cars with flashing lights on and paramedics, and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force was already on the scene collecting evidence. Someone asked me if I wanted to see my brother. He was still in his squad, and I said I would wait until they took him to the ambulance. I rode with his body in the ambulance to Ingalls Memorial Hospital because they had to officially pronounce him dead there.”
Cook had trouble understanding how anyone could gun down his brother in cold blood, but the man police eventually accused of the crime has a long record of violence.
Nicholson is serving sentences at Stateville Correctional Center for multiple crimes, including a conviction for attempted murder, and isn’t eligible for parole until 2145. While in custody, he was convicted of possession of a weapon in a penal institution.
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Earlier in the day of Thomas Cook’s death, Nicholson had a running gun battle with a Harvey police officer — in a car where the driver hung out one window and a passenger hung out another, as they each fired weapons during a high-speed chase, according to testimony in the just-concluded trial. Harvey K-9 officer Alex Gbur said Nicholson fired a semiautomatic gun at him during that car chase Sept. 27, 2006.
One theory of Cook’s murder is that Nicholson was trying to replace the guns that he and his partner in the shootout had ditched after escaping police when they came across Cook in the squad car. Cook’s service weapon was found two years later buried in a back yard in Robbins.
Jeremy Lloyd, Nicholson’s alleged partner in crime, pleaded guilty to attempted murder of the Harvey officer and first-degree murder in the case of Cook. He eventually agreed to testify that he was the lookout on the night Cook was slain and saw Nicholson pointing a gun at Cook’s head. Lloyd is facing 40 years in prison.
Lloyd and Nicholson were in prison when charged with Cook’s murder.
“I know there are people out there saying this guy (Nicholson) is going to be in prison for 130 years anyway, so why put him on trial again,” Bob Cook said. “Well, our family, out of a sense of justice, would like a piece of that pie for my brother’s murder. We want justice. That’s all we’re looking for, that’s all we’ve waited for since 2006.”
Nicholson took the stand in his defense during the trial and denied shooting Thomas Cook.
“That’s all he said, but it opened the door for the prosecution to bring up his prior convictions,” Bob Cook said. “They wouldn’t have been able to tell the jury about that if he hadn’t testified. It’s prohibited by law. They weren’t able to tell the jury how long a sentence he’s serving, but from my perspective it was a good thing that they were at least able to hear he had been convicted of other crimes.”
He expressed gratitude for the “hard work of the assistant state’s attorney” who prosecuted the case, the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force and “all the other people who have worked for so hard and so long to make sure this didn’t just go away.”
“I think there was one person in that jury who just made up their mind not to convict before they ever heard the evidence,” Cook said. “You know, before every trial the judge instructs the jury not to make up their minds until they hear all the evidence.
“Potential jurors are asked if they can set their beliefs aside and make a ruling strictly based on the evidence they hear in court. … Well, I think that didn’t happen here. At least, I think that was the case with one of the jurors.”
It’s difficult, maybe impossible, for any of us to understand the emotional toll the family of a murder victim experiences, especially when a case drags on for years and they have to relive the incident again and again. Bob Cook and I often crossed paths at the Bridgeview courthouse, and he would frequently mention that he hoped someday his family would be able to move on — but not until there was a trial.
The result of that trial is likely something he never anticipated.
“I was there in court every day, my wife and I were there, and we will be back again,” he said. “It’s for my brother.”
He said Thomas Cook’s children are teenagers now, 18 and 15.
“You know he had just bought that home in Indiana shortly before he was killed,” Bob Cook recalled. “There were fundraisers that helped them pay off the mortgage. So that helped.”
Thomas’ widow, Pamela, has not remarried and testified during the trial.
“We’re ready to do this again,” Bob Cook said. “That’s all right. I’m just thankful we get the opportunity to do it again. And I am very pleased that the Cook County state’s attorney is willing to bring this to trial once again. I loved my brother. He was a great guy.”