Murder trial opens in taxi driver's death - Ex-city worker ran over victim with cab, witnesses tell court

Murder trial opens in taxi driver's death - Ex-city worker ran over victim with cab, witnesses tell court
By Carlos Sadovi
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published August 16, 2006

A former Chicago Department of Public Health employee is a cold-blooded killer who repeatedly ran over a cabdriver with his own cab after a dispute over the fare, prosecutors said on the first day of the man's murder trial.

Lawyers for Michael Jackson, 38, said it was their client who was the victim, and that Haroon Paryani was the anti-gay and anti-Jewish aggressor.

Jackson is charged with three counts of murder and one count of aggravated vehicular hijacking for the Feb. 4, 2005, killing of Paryani, a 62-year-old father of four.

Five witnesses testified Tuesday that they saw the dispute between the two men escalate from a screaming match to a street fight.

Jackson allegedly ran over Paryani repeatedly near Jackson's apartment in the 500 block of West Briar Place after the two fought over an $8 fare.

"Michael Jackson did the unthinkable: He entered the cab ... put that car in drive, and he aimed the cab at Haroon Paryani and rammed him with it," said Cook County Assistant State's Atty. Mercedes Luque-Rosales. Jackson rammed Paryani repeatedly, "leaving him in a pool of his own blood," said Luque-Rosales.

Todd Pugh, one of Jackson's lawyers, said Paryani has a history of attacking passengers and told jurors that they would hear from one of those people.

"The state is suggesting that ... Michael Jackson went from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. It doesn't make sense then, and it doesn't make sense now. Michael Jackson is no Mr. Hyde," Pugh said. "On that day, Michael Jackson got into Mr. Hyde's cab."

Roshan Alvares testified that he saw the fight from his third-floor window and said it seemed to end with Paryani falling face-first on the street.

"When the man was on the ground, was he attempting to get back up at all?" asked Cook County Assistant State's Atty. Lawrence X. O'Reilly.

"No," Alvares said.

Susan Lichtman testified that while she did not hear what the argument was about, she saw both men on the street swearing at each other and tussling several feet in front of the cab. She said she saw a man, whom she later was told was Jackson, walking back toward the cab when Paryani fell face-first on the street.

Jackson got into the cab and spent a few seconds with his hands on his lap before turning the gear-shift knob up and down a few times, said Lichtman.

"He backed the cab up about a half a car length, then Mr. Jackson turned the front wheel, put it in gear and into drive. He accelerated the cab, driving into Mr. Paryani," Lichtman said. "His hands were fixed [on the steering wheel]."

Lichtman said she was watching this unfold from her first-floor apartment window on Briar Place. She said she saw Jackson run over Paryani's body another time and was watching him back up a third time and accelerate toward Paryani before she left to call the police.

Alice Weinstein, another witness from the neighborhood, said she saw the cab run over Paryani's body before it drove on Briar Place and onto Broadway, where the cab smashed into a parked car.

She said there was enough room to go around Paryani.

"I saw the car go over what I saw; it was a body," she said, adding the driver had "plenty of room."

Kyle Carroll said that she looked out of her third-floor apartment window when she heard the men swearing at each other. She said that before the cab moved, she heard a man, who later jumped into the driver's side, threaten the other man.

"I heard [expletive] you and I'll [expletive] kill you," Carroll said.

But under cross-examination by Jackson's lawyer, Tom Breen, Carroll said she was never able to identify Jackson as the man who made the statement and jumped into the car.

During opening statements, Jackson's lawyers admitted that Jackson had an argument with Paryani but said the driver became belligerent when Jackson questioned the route the cabdriver was taking and the amount on the meter.

They said that Jackson struggled with the gearshift of the car and did not know that he had run over Paryani's body.

If convicted, Jackson could face a sentence of life in prison without parole, prosecutors have said.

Jackson was a policy and communication specialist at the Public Health Department's sexually transmitted disease/HIV/AIDS division. In 1992 he established the Hearts Foundation, a non-profit organization that describes itself as supporting Chicago's gay and lesbian community. He was fired after his arrest.

Jackson, who is HIV positive, was charged in April 2005 in DuPage County with reckless assault for allegedly spitting on a nurse at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. At the time, Jackson was free on $750,000 bail for the murder charge. He has also been charged with reckless conduct for allegedly having sexual contact with inmates in the DuPage County Jail without disclosing that he is HIV positive.

The trial is expected to continue on Wednesday.

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csadovi@tribune.com