After five agonizing days waiting for some word of her missingteenage daughter, Juanita Davoodi said, she couldn't accept the newspolice delivered: 14-year-old Nassim had been found buried in amakeshift grave in rural Lake County.
"I told them they were wrong, they were mistaken," Juanita Davoodisaid Tuesday, tears streaming down her cheeks as she told a CookCounty jury how she learned on June 5, 2002, that her youngest childhad been murdered.
"I didn't want it to be anybody else's daughter, but I thought forsure it was a mistake," Davoodi said, choking out the words as shesobbed. "It couldn't be my daughter. She was only 14. Who would hurther?"
Her emotional testimony opened the murder trial of 23-year-oldSkyler Chambers, who is charged in Nassim Davoodi's disappearance anddeath.
Chambers, of Hayward, Calif., and another man, Turner Reeves III,of Hanover Park, are charged with kidnapping, raping and suffocatingNassim Davoodi after offering her a ride home from school May 31,2002. Both men face possible death sentences if convicted of killingthe Bartlett High School freshman.
Web-based pals
The men had chatted via the Internet for about four years, but hadmet in person only four days earlier when Chambers arrived inIllinois to visit Reeves, prosecutors told jurors Tuesday.
"He came in not only to visit a friend, but to pursue theirtwisted fantasies," Cook County Assistant State's Attorney StevenRosenblum told jurors. Authorities have contended the two men sharedan interest in sexually explicit, sometimes violent Web sites.
The day Chambers arrived in the Chicago area, Reeves had arrangeda sexual threesome with a girl he knew, Rosenblum said. "It gave thema taste for more," he said.
She stood out
Several days later at Bartlett High School the two men noticedNassim, a striking young girl with long black hair and dark eyes.
Reeves' cousin, Jarrett Curtis, who in 2002 also attended the highschool, testified Tuesday that he introduced Chambers to Nassim.
Chambers chatted with her and unsuccessfully offered her a ridehome, said Curtis, now 19. A day later, Chambers saw the girl againat the school and this time persuaded her to accept a ride, saidCurtis, who testified he went with them back to Reeves' home.
Curtis said he left Chambers, Reeves and Nassim in the garage ofthe home.
After he left, Chambers and Reeves began sexually assaulting herin the back seat of the car, prosecutors contend.
"She said, "Let me go home. I want to go home,' " Rosenblum said,recounting her pleas. "She begged them in the back of that car not torape her. Her words were not heard by anybody who cared."
After both men raped her, Rosenblum said, Reeves grabbed the girlin a chokehold, then he and Chambers smothered her with two smallplastic-covered pillows.
"She fought with every ounce of strength and energy she had,"Rosenblum said. "In that pitch-black garage, she fought for her lifefor 10 minutes."
Curtis testified that Reeves, who is still awaiting trial, laterordered him to tell police that Nassim had refused a ride from thembut instead had gotten into another car.
Chambers' attorney argued that Chambers was sexually interested inNassim but never intended to attack her.
"His intention was not to force her into the car or into a sexualrelationship," said DuPage County Public Defender Robert Miller, amember of Chambers' defense team. The trial is being heard in CookCounty, but attorneys from both counties are involved because Nassimwas kidnapped in DuPage County but slain in Cook County.
Miller described Reeves, not Chambers, as the leader andinstigator in the events that led to Nassim's death.
No remorse
"Skyler did not murder Nassim, Turner Reeves murdered Nassim,"Miller said, although he acknowledged Chambers was present during hermurder and helped bury her body.
When police showed Chambers five photos of the girl after her bodyhad been discovered buried in a secluded area in rural Lake County,he expressed no sorrow for her death, Rosenblum said.
"His words of great remorse were, 'Damn, you found her,' "Rosenblum said.
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