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Attempted Murder Trial Now Officially Underway
"Did you catch Sterling yet?"

That's a phrase prosecutors want a jury to remember as the trial of a 47 year old Galesburg man officially gets underway in Knox County Circuit Court, after two and a half days of jury selection.

Sterling Nicholson faces charges of Attempted First-Degree Murder, Aggravated Battery, and Aggravated Domestic Battery, for allegedly committing an attack in late-January that left his 41 year old girlfriend, paraphrasing Assistant State's Attorney Elisa Tanner during opening statements, "brutally beaten."

Tanner told the eight-woman, four-man jury that Nicholson and the victim had been arguing at a local bar during the early morning hours of January 21, which continued in a car on their way home, while they transported another man home.

Tanner says the passenger then heard what he thought was bones being crushed after seeing the victim get punched in the face.

Officers later showed up at a Mulberry Street home, and discovered pools and smears of blood.

"Did you catch Sterling yet?" is what Tanner says the victim asked officers when they arrived at the hospital a short time after that, though head and brain injuries were so severe the victim doesn't remember a thing.

On rebuttal, Public Defender Jim Harrell claimed the passenger actually committed the assault, and that the actual events of that day are different than what prosecutors say they are.

The victim's ex-boyfriend and a police officer have already testified at trial.
10 18 12 by Newsroom
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