The White House confirmed that President Donald Trump has spoken to the family of 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, who was shot and killed on March 19 allegedly by 25-year-old illegal immigrant Jose Medina-Medina from Venezuela.
Gorman was out with friends on a pier taking in the Chicago skyline and hoping to see the Northern Lights when prosecutors say a masked Medina dressed all in black emerged and shot her in the back as she fled.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called out the lack of media coverage of the case. “It’s despicable the lack of coverage of this young woman’s case, of her life and the way that it was tragically cut short,” she said. “I saw a survey over the weekend… This is the media coverage of the case… You have ABC News has spent 1 minute and 19 seconds between two days… You have CBS, 2 minutes and 1 second. You have NBC, 23 seconds spent on the life of a young, beautiful American woman whose life was taken short by an illegal alien who should have never been here in the first place… I think her life was worth more than 23 seconds on cable television.”
Suspect in Court
As reported on Tuesday’s AM Update, Medina-Medina made his first court appearance Friday by videolink from the Cook County Jail medical unit due to his recent tuberculosis diagnosis. WGN reported the suspect could be seen vomiting at one point during the proceeding.
Inside the courtroom, Cook County Assistant Public Defender Julie Koehler attempted to garner sympathy for her client. According to reports, she told the judge that Medina is “severely brain damaged and disabled” and has the “brain development of a child” thanks to a bullet fragment lodged in his brain. He was apparently shot in Colombia after fleeing violence in Venezuela.
She requested he remain detained not because he is guilty of murder but because his legal team is afraid of ICE, a message Koehler reiterated after the hearing. “We are very concerned that if Jose was released that he would be detained by ICE and transported to a third country… without the benefit of due process,” she told reporters.
The Gorman family released a statement following the hearing that read, in part: “We sat in a courtroom and listened as the person accused of taking Sheridan’s life was described through the lens of his background, his circumstances, and his struggles. We heard a call for compassion. And we understand that instinct. Every life has a story. But we cannot lose sight of the simple, devastating truth at the center of all of this: Sheridan had a life too. There is a difference between understanding a life and excusing a loss.”
The judge ordered Medina detained, with his next court appearance scheduled for April 15. A private funeral and burial were held for Gorman on Saturday, and her parents also spoke at a public memorial service. Her father described her as “our collective joy” and said “now that joy is gone.”
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