NOTE: NBC Chicago will offer live coverage of the verdict from the courtroom in a player above.
Nearly two weeks after it began, the trials for two men accused of fatally shooting a 9-year-old Chicago boy point-blank in what prosecutors alleged stemmed from a gang war were left to a jury Thursday, who found one of the two guilty.
Dwright Boone-Doty was found guilty of the murder of Tyshawn Lee Thursday around 8:40 p.m.
The trial is a double-jury trial, meaning Boone-Doty and Morgan are being tried together but before separate juries.
Hours after court started Thursday, the jury hearing the case for Corey Morgan received its deliberation instructions.
Closing arguments for the jury hearing Boone-Doty's case ended around 5:30 p.m., however, the second jury began deliberations around 6 p.m., and the judge later ordered for them to go home around 8 p.m. That jury was set to resume Friday at 9:30 a.m.
"If ever there has been a case with more than enough evil to spread around...it is this one," said Assistant State's Attorney Craig Engebretson.
During the 12-day trial, prosecutors presented evidence that the two gang members charged with first-degree murder plotted to kill 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee in retaliation for a shooting that killed Morgan's brother and wounded his mother.
Tyshawn was playing basketball in November 2015 when prosecutors say he was lured away from a playground with a juice box, then shot at close range in an alley in broad daylight. His basketball was found just feet away.
Authorities allege Boone-Doty was the gunman and Morgan planned the killing of Tyshawn to retaliate against the fourth-grader's father.
A third man accused in the shooting, alleged getaway driver Kevin Edwards, pleaded guilty last month in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence.
"Tyshawn brought a basketball to Dawes Park...Corey Morgan, Dwright Doty and Kevin Edwards brought guns," Assistant State's Attorney Margaret Hillman said in her opening statement.
The prosecution rested its case Wednesday after showing jurors autopsy photographs of Tyshawn after his execution-style killing.
The autopsy photos included ones of the fatal shot to the boy’s head. And to remind jurors of the last helpless moments of Tyshawn’s life, prosecutors showed jurors photos of a bullet wound to the boy’s thumb, which they contend was struck when he tried to block the bullets.
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Defense attorneys questioned the credibility of witnesses and evidence in the case, arguing the jury should put its sympathies and prejudice aside.
"Every bit of evidence the state would use to take this man’s freedom must be tested," Morgan's defense attorney Todd Pugh said.
The key evidence in the case may well be recordings made by a jailhouse snitch where Doty was heard bragging about the murder and making up a rap song about it.
But defense attorneys argued the audio was coerced.
"These are the kinds of cases where the burden of proof has to mean something," Pugh said.
