Jury decides alleged cop killer Marcus Floyd is fit for trial

A Cook County jury Thursday decided that alleged cop killer Marcus Floyd is fit to stand trial in the murder of Chicago Police Officer Thomas Wortham IV.

Floyd claims he has amnesia and cannot recall the chain of events that led to his injuries and Wortham’s death on the South Side on May 19, 2010.

However, prosecutors stressed to jurors that it didn’t matter whether Floyd remembered what happened the spring night he and three others tried to steal Wortham’s Yamaha motorcycle outside Wortham’s parents’ home at 85th Street and Martin Luther King Drive.

What is essential, prosecutors said, was that Floyd can process information he’s been told about the deadly shooting and can assist his attorneys in building a defense.

The jury agreed and returned the verdict after deliberating for a little over an hour.

Floyd’s “ability to think and process information is intact,” Assistant State’s Attorney Risa Lanier said in her closing arguments Thursday morning as Wortham’s family and friends looked on.

“Clearly he can process information about the crime. . . . It is not about his amnesia. It’s about what he can do in spite of it.”

Floyd has since recovered from the five to six bullet wounds he suffered during a gun battle with Wortham’s father, a retired Chicago Police sergeant who came to his son’s aid, prosecutors said.

Floyd, 24, has no cognitive deficiencies or mental problems and says he remembers everything but the circumstances surrounding Wortham’s death.

Floyd’s attorney Brian Walsh reminded the jury that Robert Hanlon, a clinical neuropsychologist hired by the defense, confirmed that Floyd has “retrograde amnesia.”

Retrograde amnesia can develop after anoxic brain damage, which Floyd had while he underwent multiple surgeries, Hanlon testified during the three-day trial.

While Floyd’s memory before and after the shooting is fine, he can’t answer why he did what he is accused of or how he got to the murder scene and whether he hesitated from ever participating in the crime, Walsh said.

“The ability to assist in your defense is more that just sitting here,” Walsh said.

Prosecutors noted that the two mental health experts they called to the witness stand deemed Floyd fit for trial, but Hanlon never gave an opinion on the matter.

Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Jo Murtaugh further questioned whether Floyd really has amnesia. She noted that when Floyd was interviewed by forensic psychiatrist Mathew Markos and fed details about the shooting, he volunteered that he didn’t have a gun.

Murtaugh also said Floyd was “faking it” when he was speaking in a halted voice during a videotaped interview with Hanlon.

Even if Floyd has memory loss of the event as he claims, Murtaugh said, he can still be tried for Wortham’s murder.

“Amnesia alone does not mean unfit,” she said.

Floyd’s cousin, Brian Floyd, 20, was killed in the shootout with Wortham’s father.

The lookouts — Paris McGee, 25, and Toyious Taylor, 34, — are serving life sentences.