A Cook County judge ruled today that a South Side man acted in self-defense when he fatally shot a man who accosted him and his daughters at a bus stop on Super Bowl Sunday last yearElliot Mayfield, 53, looked back at his family in triumph and then dabbed at his eyes with a tissue after Judge Maura Slattery Boyle acquitted him of first- and second-degree murder in the Feb. 7, 2010, slaying of Samuel Fullilove, 33.
Mayfield, who has been held in lieu of $500,000 bond since his arrest the day after the shooting, will be released from Cook County Jail later today.
His family said they believed all along that Mayfield would be found not guilty.
“He wasn’t a murderer. He was just trying to protect his family,” Mayfield’s sister, who did not give her name, said outside court.
Several members of Fullilove’s family jumped up from their seats and left the courtroom as soon as the judge made her ruling.
According to testimony in the bench trial, Fullilove had been celebrating the Super Bowl victory by the New Orleans Saints and was extremely intoxicated when he approached Mayfield and his two daughters -- 15 and 11 -- and their young friend as they waited for a bus at 6114 S. King Dr.
When Fullilove offered to sell drugs to those at the bus stop, Mayfield told him, “We’re just trying to get home -– we’re not with that,” according to testimony. After Fullilove became aggressive, Mayfield showed him the gun and said, “I’ll use it.”
Fullilove walked away but came back moments later and was captured on a city surveillance camera swinging his fists at Mayfield and chasing him. At one point, the eldest daughter got in between the men and said, “Leave my daddy alone.” Mayfield then pulled out the gun and fired once from about three feet away, according to testimony.
“Mr. Mayfield was not the aggressor,” the judge said in her ruling. “Here is this man just trying to get home, and their paths cross and tragedy ensued.”
Relatives told the Tribune last year that Mayfield kept a gun for protection because crime was so bad in his Woodlawn neighborhood.
Mayfield did not face weapons charges
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