SHEBOYGAN, WI (WHBL) - It took a jury less than two hours Wednesday to find Israel Littleton guilty of charges connected to a shooting incident in Sheboygan last November.
The 23-year-old Milwaukee man was convicted of attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety. All three counts had a "party to the crime" rider attached to them, meaning the jury only needed to be proven without a doubt that Littleton played a role in the incident in order to be found guilty.
The shooting incident occurred after midnight on November 29 at a home on South 10th Street in Sheboygan. It was described as a drug deal gone bad, resulting in two people suffering gunshot wounds. One person was shot three times.
The vast majority of the evidence in this case was circumstantial. That means not one piece of evidence blatantly pointed to Littleton actually shooting the gun that injured the victims. Instead, the prosecution, led by Sheboygan County Assistant District Attorney Joel Urmanski, used witness testimony and a variety of physical and digital evidence, including phone records, to prove to the jury that Littleton was at the home when gunshots were fired.
Defense attorney Christopher Hartley tried to convince the jury that the evidence had too many holes in it to prove his client was at the scene. He said during closing arguments that he questioned if witnesses told the truth when on the stand, and the other evidence was too speculative to prove Littleton was at the crime scene.
Judge Timothy Van Akkeren will sentence Littleton on September 1.