Photo Credit: Jussie Smollettt/Instagram
The first day of court for Jussie Smollett this week showed his attorney insinuating a third attacker was present during his attack, a white person which was seen by a witness they’re trying to get to testify which would solidify his claim of a white person attacking him. But court Tuesday didn’t necessarily go as planned for the actor. For one, prosecutors showed nearby surveilance footage from the day before his January 29th, 2019 attack showed him and the Nigerian brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo out together
Chicago Police Detective Michael Theis was called to the stand where he said Smollett texting the two brothers weeks after the incident showing support for them unusual. The text read “Brother…..I love you,” Smollett wrote to Abimbola Osundairo on Feb. 14, 2019. “I stand with you. I know 10000% you and your brother did nothing wrong and never would. I am making this statement so everyone else knows,” the text said. “They will not get away with this. Please hit me when they let you go. I am behind you fully.”
Deputy Special Prosecutor Samuel Mendenhall said, “To this day, has Mr. Smollett ever come clean about this hate crime?” to which Theis responded, “Not that I’m aware of.” Theis also described Smollett as being “not forthcoming” with investigators in the aftermath of the attack refusing to cooperate, especially when two dozen detectives logged a whopping 3,000 hours investigating his claim.
“This was horrible,” he testified. “I mean the crime was a hate crime, but a horrible hate crime. There was a noose, there was bleach. It was local news. It was national news. Everyone wanted to know what happened, from the mayor on down,” Theis said. “Everybody wanted answers.” He said Smollett refused to give a DNA sample to compare with what was at the scene. “At the end of the investigation we determined that the alleged hate crime was actually a staged event,” Theis testified.
The surveilance footage mentioned earlier showed Smollett walking near the scene with the two brothers and the siblings seen taking a cab to a different neighborhood nearby. They then switched to an Uber to meet with Smollett.
Smollett’s defense attorney Nenye Uche told jurors that a “real crime” took place and it happened because they “did not like him as a person.”
Smollett’s facing 3 years in prison for this. I can state from experience that I know Chicago has one of the most extensive camera surveilance systems in the country. From the moment this happened, I said if there was any funny business on his behalf, I would imagine it should not be difficult to prove. I’m still reserving judgment on this because anything can happen, regarding the probability of the attack. We’ll be reporting more on this later.
