The murder trial of a Beardstown man for shooting another Beardstown man earlier this year came to a conclusion on Thursday.
The trial began on Monday with State’s Attorney Craig Miller presenting evidence that 37-year old Jean C. Santiago-Nieves shot 27-year old Steve Dominguez multiple times in the head in a car outside of Dominguez’s residence in the 1400 block of Clay Street in Beardstown on the morning of May 31st. Santiago-Nieves was taken into custody at the scene of the shooting and was taken to the Schuyler County Jail.
Over the course of the 4-day trial, the jury saw over two dozen pieces of physical evidence and heard and watched both video and audio recordings taken of interviews in the case. At least a half dozen members of law enforcement from the Beardstown Police and Illinois State Police’s Division of Criminal Investigation took the stand for testimony, as well as members of the victim’s family.
Miller says that photo and video evidence as well as ballistics and Dominguez’s autopsy results from Dr. Nathaniel Patterson in Springfield demonstrated Santiago-Nieves’ motive in the case: “There were no eye witnesses to the case. The motive was more established by the testimony of Dr. Patterson. He did not really speak directly to the motive, but circumstantially, when he performs an autopsy – the individual is telling a story. The story was that these gunshot wounds to the head showed a pattern of…or at least showed the defendant’s anger and motive why he did what he did. I also think that Sgt. Sergio Rodriguez with the Illinois State Police showed with the phone extraction that these two individuals were in a business relationship together. Part of the motive was that the defendant wanted out of the business relationship and essentially murdered Steve Dominguez because of that.”
Miller says that the business was determined to be an illegal cannabis grow operation. Miller says that Public Defender Denise Barr’s case was one of self-defense for her client, which they tried to show through testimony from Beardstown Police Chief Deputy Terry Comiskey and with one of Dominguez’s family members: “The defense’s case was that the victim had been threatening the defendant, and that was the reason for the killing of Steve Dominguez. The defendant claimed self defense, admitted that he did shoot him, and tried to give an explanation as to why. The Chief Deputy’s testimony said that he simply responded to the scene and had smelled the odor of alcoholic beverage on the victim – that was his main testimony. One of the victim’s family members had arrived at the scene after it was secure and spoke with police officers – that was his main testimony.”
The jury received the case around mid-morning on Thursday after closing arguments were presented and deliberated for just under 3 hours. The jury returned a guilty verdict on the first degree murder charges as well as finding that the state’s case had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that a firearm was used in the commission of the murder, which will add sentencing enhancement.
Santiago-Nieves faces the possibility of 45 years to life in prison during sentencing. Santiago-Nieves remains held at the Schuyler County Jail until his sentencing date on September 30th.