Sitting on the hallway floor outside a Cook County courtroom Thursday, Vicente Colores-Chalmers pulled out a September 2018 video of her fiancé, Shane Colombo.
Colombo, 25, had just walked into a condo the couple had purchased in Evanston for the first time and sent Colores-Chalmers a video of himself laughing and saying hello. About two hours after sending the video to Colores-Chalmers, Colombo, a new doctoral student at Northwestern University, was shot and killed near Clark Street and Howard Avenue in Rogers Park.
A jury Thursday evening found Diante Speed, now 26, guilty of first-degree murder after about four hours of deliberation. In the courtroom at Leighton Criminal Court, Colombo’s mother, Tonya Colombo, gasped as the verdict was read. Speed’s mother and grandmother, on the other side of the courtroom, remained silent.
Shortly after the court dismissal, Tonya Colombo, 58, smiled. It has been six anxious years of waiting and “desire for justice, to give him peace,” she said. “Now I feel like we can finally do it.”
The wait for trial was stressful for both parents. Shane Colombo’s father, Ernesto, brought a file of tattered paperwork each day of the court proceedings. The file contained everything from his son’s birth and death records to his Social Security card and notes of conversations he had with detectives. He devoted much of his grief to the intricacies of the legal process and Speed’s criminal history, even though he knew it would not undo the events of six years ago.
“Nothing will bring him back,” Ernesto Colombo said. “(But) we’re at the point where we’re seeking justice.”
During closing arguments Thursday, prosecutors said justice meant nothing less than a first-degree murder conviction. Whether Speed targeted Shane Colombo or someone else, Assistant State’s Attorney James Papa said, “the law doesn’t allow a shooter to be a bad shooter.”
“(Speed) turned Howard and Clark Street into his own private shooting range,” Assistant State’s Attorney Kim Ward said. “He was a threat and menace to everyone and the person who paid the price was Shane Colombo.”
Speed’s defense attorneys focused on the argument that Speed fired in self-defense, after a man in a white tank top who Speed said was threatening him and his friends.
Surveillance video showed Colombo collapsing to the sidewalk, but did not capture anyone firing a weapon. Deputy Public Defender Sarah Fransene said there was no footage of Speed’s alleged target making threats that they said made Speed fear for his safety.
“Just because the video didn’t capture every angle of what happened at Clark and Howard’s that night doesn’t mean something didn’t happen,” Fransene said.
Defense attorneys also sought to cast suspicion on Chicago police’s handling of the shooting scene and accused the investigating detective of lying to Speed about the part of the shooting. shooting which had been filmed. They acknowledged the case was tragic and high-profile and suggested to the jury that police were feeling pressure to move forward with the case.
While prosecutors focused on Speed’s comments during a call to his mother, where he said, “I was shooting and I hit an innocent man; I hit a white dude and he died,” Speed’s lawyers instead focused on the account he gave to his mother in the same phone call; claiming a man in a tank top had threatened him.
Colombo’s death was “a senseless, appalling, horrible tragedy,” Fransene said. “But you cannot let sympathy or any other prejudice influence your judgment on this matter.”
As he awaited the verdict Thursday afternoon, Colores-Chalmers was sorting through photos of Colombo on his phone. Colombo was always on the move, he said. He always had a skateboard. He was always late, often because he wanted to be “everywhere at once.”
Although Colores-Chalmers said he knew instantly he wanted to marry Colombo when they met at a fraternity event, the couple got engaged in 2017. Colombo wanted to play the James Blake song “Retrograde” during their marriage. Colores-Chalmers got married, but he still can’t listen to the many playlists Colombo created for him throughout their relationship.
He lived in Evanston, in the apartment he bought to share with Colombo, for three years. For the first few months, Colores-Chalmers brought flowers to the site where he was killed every day. He took public transportation on the same streets that prosecutors and defense attorneys referred to throughout the trial. He left Chicago and studied to become a death doula, focused on supporting dying people and their loved ones.
“The expression that you see someone (deceased) and have to identify them is horrible,” he said. “I don’t want to live in a world where people can leave it and their last experience is terrible. Wouldn’t you like to be helped and given dignity, respect and love?
He hopes to work in hospitals, but also in prisons, where he is sure to meet people convicted of crimes like the one that killed Colombo.
Colores-Chalmers said before the jury returned that he wanted to see the case resolved, but expressed sympathy for the socioeconomic pressures that can drive people into the criminal justice system.
“I feel bad that he wasn’t supported and didn’t have the opportunity to turn his life around,” said Colores-Chalmers, 34, who wore Colombo’s engagement ring on a chain around his neck. “I hope he lives a better life after this. Maybe we’ll take care of him.
Speed is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 3.
