Perkins acquitted of attempted murder in Streator case

A Streator man was acquitted Thursday of the attempted murder of a drug agent, but he was convicted of three other firearm and/or drug felonies.

A La Salle County jury deliberated three hours and returned three felony convictions against 21-year-old Courtney M. Perkins. Sentencing will be Oct. 26 in La Salle County Circuit Court.

The La Salle County State’s Attorney’s Office computed Perkins’ minimum prison sentence at 27 years. Perkins did, however, dodge a sentence of 40 to 80 years for attempted murder.

[ Day 1: Streator attempted murder case: Perkins fired toward drug agent, witness says ]

[ Day 2: Jury to deliberate in Streator drug bust shooting ]

Chicago defense attorney Charles Snowden declined to comment on the verdict.

La Salle County State’s Attorney Joe Navarro said he was pleased the jury convicted Perkins of most of his charges – Perkins, he said, will face an appropriately lengthy sentence – but he also said he was confounded as to why the jury acquitted Perkins of attempted murder.

“As a gun advocate myself, I find it difficult to believe that when you point a gun and fire at someone you don’t mean to kill or injure them,” Navarro said. “But that’s the jury’s decision, and we’ll live with it.”

Perkins was charged with the four felonies after a Sept. 29 drug sting at a Streator car wash. There, Perkins had pre-arranged the sale of 20 Ecstasy pills for $350. An accomplice, Alaina Cravatta, arrived at the scene to make the transfer.

The buyer, however, was an undercover police officer named Bernie Larsen of the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Narcotics Team. Larsen announced, “Police! You’re under arrest,” and then tried to place Cravatta into custody. Then, he heard a shot fired.

“I looked immediately to where the sound of the gunfire came from,” Larsen testified earlier at trial. “I saw a Black male subject standing 10 to 15 yards away pointing a pistol right at me.”

That suspect was Perkins, who fled the scene and later admitted to police that he fired the shot – but only to protect Cravatta from a man he couldn’t know was a cop.

“I was trying to get him off [Cravatta],” Perkins told police in a recorded statement.

Perkins’ lawyer failed to persuade a jury that Perkins was justified in firing the shot to protect Cravatta – “defense of others,” in legal parlance – but did succeed in persuading the jury that prosecutors fell short of proving Perkins tried to kill the drug agent.

Snowden told jurors Thursday during closing arguments that the bullet supposedly fired at Larsen would have hit the unmarked police vehicle Larsen had parked in a bay of the car wash rather than the wall.

“We’re dealing with a cartoon bullet in this case,” Snowden said, adding later, “It is the biggest junk science you will ever hear.”

And could Perkins have reasonably known Larsen was a police officer? Larsen was dressed in plainclothes, Snowden argued, and Perkins couldn’t be presumed to have heard Larsen say, “Police! You’re under arrest.”

Snowden also urged jurors not to rely on the testimony of then-agent James Mandujano. Although Mandujano had testified that he got a clear look at Perkins firing – Mandujano saw the pistol jam, for example – Snowden said that if events had unfolded that way, then Perkins’ fate would immediately have been sealed.

“If [Perkins] raised a gun and pointed at [Larsen], he would be dead,” Snowden said. “They’d have shot him and killed him.”

But prosecutors nonetheless sustained the discharge count and got the jury to reject any notion that Perkins was justified in pulling the trigger.

Prosecutor Greg Sticka said Perkins was no hapless passerby who rushed to help a woman escape her assailant. He reminded jurors that Perkins set up the deal and brought a .22-caliber pistol to the scene in case trouble arose.

“He’s there,” Sticka said during closing arguments. “He’s armed. He’s walking around. He’s on his phone. Right when the deal is going down, he makes his way into the car wash. He is the lookout. And when you are surveilling something, what do you want to do? You want to get close enough to see and hear what’s going on.”

Prosecutor Laura Hall reminded jurors that Perkins’ first act after firing the gun was to stoop briefly to collect the money that had fallen when Larsen placed Cravatta under arrest – an indicator, she suggested, of how worried Perkins was for Cravatta’s safety.

“The defendant is not some good Samaritan,” Hall said. “He’s not somebody who ran into a burning building to save a puppy. The defendant didn’t see a crime being committed, call 911 and call out, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ ”

Charges against Cravatta are pending in a separate courtroom. She will next appear Sept. 1.