Murder trial: Man acquitted, security video shows him leaving missing woman’s residential apartment with large suitcase

The family of Daisy Hayes, who went missing in 2018, was stunned by Friday’s ruling.

Teresa Smith, Hayes’ daughter, said: “To see this man free and lost somewhere. She was lost.” “We fought so hard to get justice for her and yesterday the judge failed me.”

Hayes’ 75-year-old boyfriend, Jimmy Jackson, who has been charged with murder, trespassing and concealing the 65-year-old woman’s death, is now free after a Cook County judge ruled him not guilty.

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Smith said: “It took my heart out of my body. All I could do was scream and run out of the courtroom, like ‘can’t you see?'”.

Smith said security footage, which was part of the trial, showed Jackson leaving her mother’s Chicago Housing Authority apartment the night she disappeared, carrying a suitcase large enough to fit 85. pound, 5 foot-2 inches of Hayes inside.

Although Hayes’ body was never found, Jackson, who went to Tennessee after she went missing, was brought back to Chicago to face murder charges.

“You see him struggling with this suitcase. You see him actually putting the suitcase in the trash. You actually see him taking trash from other trash cans to put on her so he can hide it. So, I don’t know, ‘What’s more, Diana Kenworthy?’ That’s the judge.”

The judge said the video, plus there was no sign of a struggle inside the apartment nor any biological evidence of a crime, was not enough to prove he killed her.

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Kenwood Oakland Community Foundation Executive Director Shannon Bennett said: “We are absolutely shocked. “Everybody in that courtroom.”

Bennett was in the courtroom and said the family didn’t get justice.

“It’s heartbreaking. I feel for Teresa, her grandchildren, they deserve better and we’ll make sure we at least do what we would if it were her mother. us,” Bennett said.

ABC7 has contacted the Cook County State Attorney’s office, which said, “As in all cases, we have prosecuted this case to the fullest extent and will continue to do so on behalf of all of us.” including the Cook County victims.”