Chicago Man Found Guilty of 1st Degree Murder

A jury found a 31-year-old Chicago man guilty of first-degree murder Dec. 5 in a case prosecutors are calling one of the first incidents of road rage in which a bicyclist was killed by an angry driver intent on seeking revenge for a minor traffic dispute.

Facing a 20 to 60 year prison term in the wake of the verdict is Carnell Fitzpatrick, who was arrested after an April 26, 1999 incident that left bike messenger Tom McBride, 26, dead.

It took the Cook County, Ill., jury more than 16 hours over two days to reach its verdict. It had the option of convicting Fitzpatrick of the lesser charge of reckless homicide.

The conviction apparently hinged on the eyewitness testimony of a jogger, who related that he had seen Fitzpatrick deliberately run down McBride after the cyclist shouted curse words during a near-collision.

"When you have a three-ton vehicle and maybe a 20-pound bicycle, that is no even match," Assistant State's Attorney Lynda Peters commented after the verdict. "It's very skewed."

Throughout much of the trial, the courtroom was packed with bike messengers and sport cyclists. After the verdict was rendered, a bike messenger told reporters he hoped the finding would send a signal to drivers that "vehicles are murder weapons."

He added that he thought the trial's outcome would give "bicyclists a little insurance that the law is on their side."

- from a report in The Chicago Tribune