People v. Brooks

After a bench trial the defendant, Jarvis Brooks, was found guilty of murder of Hershell Cornier and armed violence and sentenced to 25 years in prison. His first contention is that he was not proved guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt.

Robert Wilson testified that Hershell Cornier (Hershell) was his niece. Wilson had known the defendant for four or five years; he knew the defendant as Hershell’s boyfriend, and he and the defendant socialized together. The relationship between the defendant and Hershell ended approximately three months before September 1986; in that period Hershell…