A Cook County jury has found a former Orr Academy basketball star guilty of second-degree murder in a case that asked jurors to decide whether he was justified in shooting a man who was trying to steal his "adorable French bulldog."
Jurors on Thursday rejected a more serious first-degree murder charge against 25-year-old Raekwon Drake after the defense said he “was acting under a sudden and intense passion due to being seriously provoked.”
The jury was given the option to choose the lesser charge, which is eligible for probation and carries a maximum sentence 20 years in prison compared to the mandatory minimum sentence of 45 years if convicted of first-degree murder with a firearm.
While prosecutors said it was “clear Raekwon Drake cared for his dog,” they argued he was seeking retribution — not trying to stop a robbery — when he shot 26-year-old Martin Palafox on July 10, 2021.
Surveillance video showed Drake being confronted by Palafox and two other men while he was walking his dog, Chase, near his Pilsen home that evening.
After running back to his apartment in the 1800 block of South Paulina, Drake emerged with a 9-mm handgun and fired several shots at Palafox, who was holding Drake’s dog and was running down the block with the other men.
But the robbery was over once Palafox dropped the dog, prosecutors argued.
Video showed Drake’s girlfriend, who he was living with, fighting with Palafox before Drake came over and could be seen striking Palafox as well. Prosecutors said the video then showed Drake “executing” Palafox between two cars that blocked a clear view of the shooting.
“When those two fatal shots were fired into Martin’s skull, it wasn't about Chase,” Assistant State’s Attorney Christina Senger said in her closing statement. “It was about revenge.”
After Palafox was shot, a man with him returned fire at Drake and his girlfriend, striking them both.
Drake’s defense attorney Frank Himel argued that it was clear Drake was the victim of a robbery and was justified in using deadly force to stop it, pointing to Drake and his girlfriend’s injuries to show the men attempting to take the dog were armed and dangerous.
On Thursday, Drake’s girlfriend, Armani Brown, took the stand and said the couple had not been ready for children but wanted to get a dog for companionship. The dog cost more than $4,000, she said.
“He’s a French bulldog, that’s just how expensive they are,” she told jurors.
But more than the cost, Brown said she and Drake loved Chase like a member of the family. She referred to the dog as “her son” repeatedly on the stand and identified herself and Drake in photos and videos that showed them bringing the dog with them on a flight to Georgia to meet her family and Drake asking the dog for a kiss.
“We met Chase and he was just everything,” she gushed.
They were about to go to a salon, but it was too hot outside to bring Chase, she said, so Drake took him for a walk so that they could leave him at home, she testified.
When Drake suddenly burst inside the apartment, he told her “they just tried to rob me” and told her “get the dog, get the dog,” who was outside in front of the apartment, she and a neighbor testified.
During a strong cross-examination by prosecutors, Brown said she blacked out at times and did not remember what happened. But she said Palafox struck her and she admitted she was “hurt” and “upset” that he tried to steal her dog.
Himel accused Palafox and his friends of being up to no good and loitering in the block for hours. He was prevented from mentioning Palafox’s alleged gang ties or criminal history in an earlier ruling from the judge.
Had Palafox’s girlfriend been called to the stand, she would have testified that Palafox, who lived in Joliet, had gone to the block that day to hang out with friends and pick up some money, both parties agreed.
“You went out looking for trouble and guess what? You found it,” Himel said of Palafox’s group in his closing.
After the verdict, Judge Laura Ayala-Gonzalez ordered Drake, who has been held in custody at the Cook County Jail for three years while awaiting trial, released on electronic monitoring ahead of sentencing. He’s due back in court Aug. 30.
Drake was a star basketball player at Orr, where he helped lead the Spartans to Class 2A state basketball championships in 2017 and 2018, the Sun-Times previously reported.
The team’s 2017 season was documented by Rick Telander’s award-winning series ”A season under the gun” for the Sun-Times.
