"Murder," announced Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrianna Kastanek as she began her opening remarks in dramatic fashion at a trial into the Chicago area's first fatal bank robbery in years. She then paused to let the word sink in before continuing: "Coldblooded murder."


Kastanek went onto describe how David Vance allegedly fatally shot teller Tramaine Gibson, 23, after he failed to open a vault during the robbery at the Illinois Service Federal Savings and Loan in Chatham in May 2007. Two accomplices engaged in a shootout, wounding a security guard and a customer.


Kastanek told the federal jury that the government would present DNA evidence, videotape surveillance of the robbery and eyewitnesses to the holdup. Vance's co-defendant Alton Marshall, who has already pleaded guilty in the case so that he could avoid the death penalty, will also testify, she said.







But Vance's attorney, Ellen Domph, attacked Marshall's credibility, calling him a "habitual liar" and "career offender" who is looking out for his best interest.


Domph told jurors that the government's forensic evidence — including a glove that contains DNA matches for both Gibson and Vance — was flawed because the FBI bungled the collection process. She said the FBI placed five clumps of latex gloves found near the robbery scene in the same plastic bag and miscounted the number of gloves found at the scene.


The first government witness, Nicole Morgan, 39, the bank's assistant branch manager, testified she was walking a client from her work cubicle when three masked men with guns stormed in. Morgan said she and the customer dropped to the floor as shots rang out.


Morgan, who was stone-faced and spoke with a steady voice as she was questioned, said she "saw the feet" of the gunmen leave the bank. That's when she saw the customer had been shot. Morgan then discovered a security guard had been shot in the leg and Gibson was mortally wounded.