Jury deliberations begin in Jussie Smollett’s trial for allegedly orchestrating and reporting a staged hate crime

CHICAGO — Jury deliberations have begun in the trial of Jussie Smollett, the former “Empire” actor accused of arranging a phony hate crime attack on himself in downtown Chicago nearly three years ago.

After a weeklong trial and about five hours of closing arguments, the six-man, six-woman jury began deliberating the hot-button case at about 2:45 p.m. after being instructed on the law by Judge James Linn.

Linn, who is known for keeping the trial going after hours, warned jurors previously that he would let their discussions continue as long as they need to.

Smollett, 39, faces six counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly giving false information to Chicago police about the alleged racial and homophobic attack on a frigid night in January 2019.

In his closing argument earlier Wednesday, Smollett’s attorney said the prosecution’s case was riddled with “doubts” and built on the testimony of two brothers who are criminals and “certified liars.”

“The entire prosecution case was built like a house of cards,” attorney Nenye Uche told jurors at the outset of his remarks. “And we all know what happens to a house of cards when you apply a little pressure. It crumbles.”

Uche said the brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, are “sophisticated liars and criminals” who lied on the witness stand to save themselves from charges they beat up Smollett on a frigid night in downtown Chicago in January 2019.

Prosecutors have alleged Smollett actually hired the brothers to commit the fake hate crime in a bid to get media attention and pressure the "Empire" studio to take his security concerns seriously.

But Uche told the jury they can’t believe what the Osundairos say.

“You have to have your guard up with them mentally, emotionally, even spiritually,” Uche said. “They are highly intelligent, really smart, and they know how to dumb it down so you think they’re victims.”

In his rebuttal, prosecutor Samuel Mendenhall accused Uche of unfairly smearing the brothers, whom he described as hard-working citizens “trying to do the best they can.”

Hitting on the defense’s hints that Abimbola might be some kind of self-hating gay man, Mendenhall said. “He’s heterosexual but even if he wasn’t … he should be a proud Black gay man just as Mr. Smollett is. We don’t weaponize that here. We don’t do that here.”

And while Ola does have a felony record, he turned his life around and got three college degrees, Mendenhall said.

“Our system would be a lot better if the young brothers who get in trouble turn around and get three degrees instead of going back into the system,” said Mendenhall.

Before Uche began, the jury heard from special prosecutor Dan Webb, who said Smollett not only committed a crime by falsely reporting a hate crime, what he did was “just plain wrong.”

Webb also told the jury that Smollett lied repeatedly during his two days on the witness stand, tailoring his testimony to fit certain aspects of the evidence.

Webb began his remarks by telling jurors the allegations against Smollett were relatively simple: He falsely reported a fake hate crime to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime.

“We have proven this by overwhelming evidence,” Webb said.

Not only is what Smollett did a crime, Webb said, “beyond that it’s just plain wrong to just outright denigrate” something as serious as a hate crime. Webb said it was particularly egregious for Smollett to make sure his plan “had words and symbols” emblematic of this country’s racist past — including a noose and the use of the N-word.

He also said Smollett’s false allegations cost the police enormous resources to investigate.

Webb said prosecutors have overwhelming evidence corroborating that the two key witnesses, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, told police the truth about Smollett’s plan to pay them to commit the hoax beating, yell racial and homophobic slurs, pour bleach on him and put a makeshift noose around his neck.

Smollett “tailored his testimony” to fit what he couldn’t deny, like surveillance footage, and lie about the rest, Webb said. He said Smollett’s initial story to police that one of his attackers appeared to be white was all part of the hoax.

“If I say it was whites, that makes it more real,” Webb says. “It gives it more credibility (that it was a hate attack).”

Smollett testified Tuesday that he didn’t know who attacked him, and that he only got a look at one assailant, who was wearing a ski mask. Webb argued it was ludicrous for him to say that, since there’s been copious evidence that it was in fact the Osundairo brothers.

“I don’t think there can be any doubt in anyone’s mind who sat through this evidence that is was the Osundairo brothers, who are Black, who attacked him,” Webb said.

Webb also ridiculed Smollett’s account that he left his apartment shortly before 2 a.m. during one of the coldest nights in years to go to get eggs at a nearby Walgreens.

“That makes no sense and that is false testimony,” Webb said.

Uche, who said he is of Nigerian descent, said it was the Osundairo brothers, who are also Nigerian, who were lying. He likened their story to an “African prince scam” and told jurors, “Don’t fall for it.”

He also pointed out Olabinjo’s prior conviction for assault and that they had guns and drugs in their home, and alleged that their answers on the witness stand last week were shifty and evasive.

“They responded like Robocop,” Uche said. “Yes, no, yes, no, I don’t recall, almost like someone is telling them what to say.”

Uche said the only evidence that the $3,500 check Smollett gave to the brothers was actually for helping commit the hoax attack was the brothers’ testimony.

“(Bola) says ‘yes this check was given to me for payment for the nutrition plan … and I thought in my brain it was also for the hoax,’” Uche said. “What are you talking about?”

Uche also said there were many questions surrounding the brothers’ alleged homophobia. Smollett testified earlier this week that he “made out” and masturbated with Abimbola at a gay bathhouse in 2018.

Could it be, Uche asked the jury, that Bola “was pretending to be Jussie’s friend and pretending to be gay, masturbating with Jussie in a bathhouse?”

Or is it “a thing where Ola has hatred towards Jussie because he’s gay and Bola, the younger brother, is trying to prove to his older brother ‘I’m not gay so I’m going to (attack Smollett)?’ I don’t know.”

Uche also questioned why Smollett would instruct his attackers to wear pro-Trump hats and yell slogans like “This is MAGA country!”

“He’s dumb enough to go into Obama’s city and pretend there’s Trump supporters running around with MAGA hats?” he said. “Give me a break.”

Uche ended with a story about John Adams representing defendants at the Boston Massacre trial in the 1700s, telling jurors that Smollett is cloaked in the presumption of innocence and asking them to stick to the facts in evidence.

“This case is crazy,” he said. “And there a lot that has been said, a lot of assumptions. And it’s been real tough. You have the power. You are the ones to decide whether this makes sense.”

Webb, meanwhile, took jurors through a list of six key things that he said “destroy” Smollett’s credibility. The first was that Smollett had refused to turn over evidence to police, something no real crime victim would do.

Webb said Smollett refused to turn over his cellphone because it would show he was in recent communication with one of the brothers who was in on the hoax. “The last thing Mr. Smollett wanted was for police to reach out to (Abimbola) Osundairo,” he said.

Webb said Smollett refused to turn over his limited medical records because he didn’t want police “poking around” and finding out that his injuries weren’t serious. “He knew that they had pulled their punches,” Webb said. “He knew his injuries weren’t serious. So he said, ‘No.’”

The next key, Webb said, was that Smollett refused to give a DNA sample. Smollett testified he was a private person, but Webb said the simple swab test was non-invasive and that “no real victim of a hate crime would decline to give” it to police.

“He didn’t want them looking at that rope for DNA because what if Bola or Ola’s DNA is on there?” Webb said.

The way the rope was put around Smollett’s neck, Webb says, also undermines his credibility. He’s showing jurors the surveillance image of the rope loosely around his neck shortly after the attack. By the time police get there, the rope is closer to his throat.

Smollett testified that he had taken the rope off briefly while changing clothes before the police arrived, but never tampered with it.

“His so-called explanation for jimmying with the rope got blown out of the courtroom yesterday,” Webb said. “If he was innocent, the real victim of a hate crime, why would he be jimmying and monkeying around with the rope? He made it look worse, and he got caught.”

Webb also blasted other aspects of Smollett’s story. including that that he and Bola were going to work out the morning of the attack, and that’s why he was texting him from New York, where his flight had been delayed the night of the attack.

Yet there was no evidence after the attack that the workout was ever canceled, Webb said. “That workout story was a bunch of hooey, not true at all,” he said.

After the brothers were arrested about two weeks after the assault, Smollett initially said he would sign complaints against them, Webb said. But after speaking to his attorney, he changed his mind and would not sign the complaint after all.

Instead, Webb said, Smollett sent a text of “support” to Abel Osundairo while he was still in custody, saying he believed “1000 %” that the brothers were not involved. Webb said the text had only one real purpose.

“He wants the brothers to think we can keep our mouths shut. Mr. Smollett is gonna keep his mouth shut and no one will ever know what happened,” Webb says. “He’s hoping they don’t cooperate.”

In his argument, Uche said Smollett had legitimate privacy concerns about turning over his phone, and called it “nonsense” that police would have needed Smollett’s DNA to test the rope. Besides, Uche said, Smollett eventually turned over his DNA to the FBI during its investigation of a hateful letter he’d received at the “Empire” studio before the attack.

“They use these terms and literally the frontal lobe of the brain is getting to work — you keep hearing ‘hiding hiding hiding hiding,’” Uche said. “He wasn’t hiding anything.”

He also said prosecutors want jurors to believe that Smollett would not have gone to Subway for food at 2 a.m. on such a frigid night, but that’s exactly what happened.

“They cannot even prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that there’s a polar vortex,” Uche said. There were multiple people in the Subway that night, he said, implying that it couldn’t have been so cold that they all kept away.

“Maybe they were in on the hoax too,” Uche joked.

The arguments started just before 9:30 a.m., capping off a seven-day trial that has captured nationwide attention.

The indictment against Smollett is perhaps the most momentous minor felony cases in Cook County history.

Under an international media spotlight, the case spiraled into a tangle of rumors and culture war flashpoints, competing lawsuits, a special prosecutor’s investigation, and a political crisis for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

____