Seven years after Niles North High School student Maxwell Gadau was shot and killed in Skokie, the murder trial of the Chicago man charged with pulling the trigger is underway.

       Antonio Hicks, now 21, of Chicago, is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the shooting. The jury trial started at the Skokie courthouse Sept. 14 and is expected to continue all week.

       Five people, including Hicks, were originally charged in connection with the shootings that killed Gadau, 17, and injuried his female friend Jeanette Spitz. Prosecutors said the shooting was part of a drug robbery gone wrong. The group planned to steal $500 worth of cannabis from Gadau’s friend Jeanette Spitz, who was shot in the face and seriously wounded during the robbery in Skokie in September 2014, prosecutors said.

       All the other defendants have either taken plea deals or have gone to trial, including Dzevad Avdic, 26, who was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder in 2018 and sentenced to 35 years in prison earlier this year.

       Photo of 17 year-old Maxwell Gadau courtesy of the Gadau family. (Family photo)

       Prosecutors allege that Hicks was the person who actually shot Gadau and Spitz. The other four defendants were charged because under the “law of accountability” they helped plan and commit the robbery, said prosecutors.

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       Avdic knew Gadau from Niles North High School and he, Hicks and three others formed a plan to go to Skokie and rob Spitz of two ounces of marijuana, prosecutors said at the time.

       They said the group agreed to meet Spitz in a vehicle in front of her home in the 9200 block of Kedvale Avenue. Spitz had asked Gadau to accompany her as support and protection during the drug transaction, prosecutors said.

       Once there, Avdic and two other teens waited nearby in a vehicle as Hicks and Myles Hughes, then 17, got into a vehicle with Gadau and Spitz, prosecutors said.

       During Avdic’s murder trial, Hughes testified that he got into the car with Hicks and that as soon as Spitz pulled out 2 ounces of marijuana, Hicks shot Gadau through the back seat then shot Spitz in the face.

       Hughes and Hicks grabbed the cannabis, ran back to the car and drove into Chicago with the other three men, Hughes said. The five were arrested and charged a short time later.

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       On Monday at the Skokie courthouse, prosecutors continued presenting their case against Hicks and called police and fingerprint experts involved in the investigation to testify.

       The trial is expected to last until the end of the week.

       Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter.

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