People v. Silva

Just before midnight on January 17, 1984, in a tavern in Chicago, David Moyet was killed and Ruben Velazquez was shot twice. A jury found defendant Martin Silva guilty of Moyet’s murder and of the attempted murder and aggravated battery of Velazquez; he was sentenced to concurrent terms of imprisonment. In this appeal, defendant contends that he was denied a fair trial and urges us to reverse his convictions for the following reasons: (1) the State improperly bolstered its case by referring to statements of nontestifying witnesses; (2) the State preyed on the jury’s sympathies by its improper…