Crime & Safety

Nutter Murder Defendant Says He Was Only a Witness

Philip Vatamaniuc told a judge this week that he did not help plot the shooting of Colin Nutter

One of the three young men charged in the shooting death of 20-year-old Highland Park resident Colin Nutter told a judge this week that he was only a witness to the killing, not a participant in the murder plot, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Philip Vatamaniuc, 17, spoke at a hearing during which his lawyer argued that the statements he made to police should not be introduced at his trial, the article explains.

Vatamaniuc was charged with first-degree murder along with Benjamin Schenk, then 20, and Michael Coffee, then 17, for the June shooting. Prosecutors say that Schenk shot Nutter while all three were sitting in a car during a drug deal. Schenk and Vatamaniuc removed Nutter's body from his car and put it in the car's trunk, the prosecutors allege. Schenk, Vatamaniuc and Coffee then drove the car near the Edens expressway in Wilmette, where Nutter’s body was eventually found by a teenager walking her dog.

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