Jury begins deliberations in shooting that killed Chicago Police Officer Ella French, wounded partner

The fate of a man accused of killing Chicago Police Officer Ella French and seriously wounding her partner was placed in the hands of a Cook County jury Tuesday afternoon.

Jurors began deliberating just a week after prosecutors began their case against Emonte Morgan, 23, with often graphic video from cameras worn by French and Officer Carlos Yanez during a traffic stop in West Englewood in 2021.

The footage visibly disturbed several of the jurors, some closing their eyes and others quietly crying.

During closing arguments Tuesday, Assistant State’s Attorney Emily Stevens froze a frame of one of the videos and told jurors they they were seeing one of the last moments of French’s life.

“Within seconds of that, this defendant took her life away,” Stevens said. “[Morgan] did nothing to help them. That’s intent. He heard [Yanez] gurgling blood and did nothing.”

Video showed Morgan holding what looked to be a gun when he was confronted by the third officer on the scene, Joshua Blas, and forensic evidence matched casings at the scene with a gun found in a nearby backyard near where Morgan and his brother, Eric Morgan, were taken into custody.

In their closings, defense attorneys maintained that Emonte Morgan was just trying to drop the gun. “The body worn camera footage, you’ve seen it, it happens fast,” Assistant Public Defender Jennifer Hodel said.

“The state wants you to believe that what happened in the front of that Honda was intentional,” she said. “But you see in those photos that Emonte is on his chest in the car. He’s not lying on his back … pointing a gun, aiming and shooting.

“It’s absolutely conceivable that during the struggle in the front of that car, someone’s finger was close enough to cause it to go off,” Hodel said.

The videos were the most compelling evidence of the prosecution’s case. Through often chaotic images from French and Yanez’s body cameras, jurors have been able to see the shooting unfold from the officers’ perspective.

French, Yanez and Blas were on patrol around 9 p.m. when they pulled over a Honda CRV that records indicated had an expired registration.

The officers were seen in the body-cam footage ordering the Morgan brothers and a woman out of the car after saying they saw an open bottle of liquor in the back seat.

Eric Morgan took off running and was pursued by Blas. Emonte Morgan, who had refused several times to put his phone away and a cup down, began to struggle with Yanez.

The camera on French’s vest was recording as she came around the back of the Honda to help Yanez. There is a scream and French’s camera suddenly points upward as she falls to the ground.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file photo

Yanez’s camera doesn’t clearly capture the shooting because he was pressed closed to Emonte Morgan at the time. He falls back and, moments later, his labored breathing and groans can be heard.
 Blas returned to the scene after hearing the gunfire and confronted Emonte Morgan, according to prosecutors. Several shots ring out and Morgan is wounded, but he is able to run away, prosecutors said.

Body cameras of officers responding to the shooting show Emonte Morgan bleeding on a sidewalk on a side street nearby.

His brother was held by a homeowner in a backyard, where police found the alleged murder weapon, allegedly handed off to Eric Morgan at some point after his brother ran off.

Eric Morgan was sentenced to seven years in prison in October after pleading guilty to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, battery with a deadly weapon and obstruction of justice.