April 20, 2005

BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter

After five agonizing days waiting for some word of her missing teenage daughter, Juanita Davoodi said, she couldn't accept the news police delivered: 14-year-old Nassim had been found buried in a makeshift grave in rural Lake County.

"I told them they were wrong, they were mistaken,'' Juanita Davoodi said Tuesday, tears streaming down her cheeks as she told a Cook County jury how she learned on June 5, 2002, that her youngest child had been murdered.

"I didn't want it to be anybody else's daughter, but I thought for sure it was a mistake,'' Davoodi said, choking out the words as she sobbed. "It couldn't be my daughter. She was only 14. Who would hurt her?''

Her emotional testimony opened the murder trial of 23-year-old Skyler Chambers, who is charged in Nassim Davoodi's disappearance and death.

Chambers, of Hayward, Calif., and another man, Turner Reeves III, of Hanover Park, are charged with kidnapping, raping and suffocating Nassim Davoodi after offering her a ride home from school May 31, 2002. Both men face possible death sentences if convicted of killing the Bartlett High School freshman.

Web-based pals

The men had chatted via the Internet for about four years, but had met in person only four days earlier when Chambers arrived in Illinois to visit Reeves, prosecutors told jurors Tuesday.

"He came in not only to visit a friend, but to pursue their twisted fantasies,'' Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Steven Rosenblum told jurors. Authorities have contended the two men shared an interest in sexually explicit, sometimes violent Web sites.

The day Chambers arrived in the Chicago area, Reeves had arranged a sexual threesome with a girl he knew, Rosenblum said. "It gave them a taste for more,'' he said.

She stood out

Several days later at Bartlett High School the two men noticed Nassim, a striking young girl with long black hair and dark eyes.

Reeves' cousin, Jarrett Curtis, who in 2002 also attended the high school, testified Tuesday that he introduced Chambers to Nassim.

Chambers chatted with her and unsuccessfully offered her a ride home, said Curtis, now 19. A day later, Chambers saw the girl again at the school and this time persuaded her to accept a ride, said Curtis, who testified he went with them back to Reeves' home.

Curtis said he left Chambers, Reeves and Nassim in the garage of the home.

After he left, Chambers and Reeves began sexually assaulting her in the back seat of the car, prosecutors contend.

"She said, "Let me go home. I want to go home,' " Rosenblum said, recounting her pleas. "She begged them in the back of that car not to rape her. Her words were not heard by anybody who cared.''

After both men raped her, Rosenblum said, Reeves grabbed the girl in a chokehold, then he and Chambers smothered her with two small plastic-covered pillows.

"She fought with every ounce of strength and energy she had,'' Rosenblum said. "In that pitch-black garage, she fought for her life for 10 minutes.''

Curtis testified that Reeves, who is still awaiting trial, later ordered him to tell police that Nassim had refused a ride from them but instead had gotten into another car.

Chambers' attorney argued that Chambers was sexually interested in Nassim but never intended to attack her.

"His intention was not to force her into the car or into a sexual relationship,'' said DuPage County Public Defender Robert Miller, a member of Chambers' defense team. The trial is being heard in Cook County, but attorneys from both counties are involved because Nassim was kidnapped in DuPage County but slain in Cook County.

Miller described Reeves, not Chambers, as the leader and instigator in the events that led to Nassim's death.

No remorse

"Skyler did not murder Nassim, Turner Reeves murdered Nassim,'' Miller said, although he acknowledged Chambers was present during her murder and helped bury her body.

When police showed Chambers five photos of the girl after her body had been discovered buried in a secluded area in rural Lake County, he expressed no sorrow for her death, Rosenblum said.

"His words of great remorse were, 'Damn, you found her,' " Rosenblum said.