Photo: Tiny & petite Tiffany K. Startz walks out from the court building.Theresa Guy could barely breathe after a Will County judge refused to dismiss charges against a Joliet woman Friday who is accused of killing Guy’s son in a party game gone wrong.
Guy left the courtroom after Tiffany K. Startz learned she’d face reckless conduct and battery charges for the death of John Powell, 25. Powell, Guy’s son, collapsed at a Crest Hill garage party minutes after he let Startz punch him in the face for $5, and he died shortly after.
Guy cried and hugged family and friends, and she tried to catch her breath. She knows the 22-year-old Startz could still be acquitted at trial, but the case isn’t over after the ruling from Judge Edward Burmila.
“She can’t walk away today,” Guy said.
Ira Goldstein, Startz’s attorney, said he wasn’t surprised by the ruling, and he ruled out a plea bargain. He said Startz didn’t commit a crime when she hit Powell.
“People get paid to get hit,” Goldstein said.
Police say Jimmy E. Mounts, 27, of Romeoville, offered guests at the Sept. 25 party $5 to take a punch from Startz, who was 5-foot-5 and weighed 142 pounds. Powell, who was 5-foot-8 and weighed 140 pounds, accepted the offer, according to court records. He took the punch, collected his money and continued talking with friends.
Powell collapsed a few minutes later and was rushed to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, where he died. The Will County coroner said he died of a brain hemorrhage caused by blunt-force trauma.
Mounts is also charged in the case, and he and Startz are expected back in court June 16.
Guy said she heard several stories about the circumstances of her son’s death before the truth came out, including a claim he tripped over a board and hit his head. But she said police have cell phone video of the punch.
She said she felt like she was losing faith in the justice system before Friday’s ruling. She also said she doesn’t believe Startz’s world stopped like hers did when Powell died.
“We’ve all been sick from this,” Guy said.
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This should have been CLEARED CLOSED - NON CRIMINAL, at least in Chicago it would have been!
Lawyers seek dismissal of criminal charges in Crest Hill party-game death
Cellphone recorded what defense attorney calls 'freak accident'
I guess being in a white rap group called the Krazy Killaz doesn't help them much either!
At a Crest Hill party last fall to celebrate the life of a person who had committed suicide, Jimmy Mounts announced a party game — $5 to anyone who would let Tiffany Startz punch them in the face.
John Powell, 25, whose rap group Krazy Killaz was to perform at the party, took the cash and agreed to be hit. Just minutes after being struck and telling Startz, "that was a good punch," the Romeoville man collapsed and died, attorneys for Startz said.
Three months after Powell's death, prosecutors charged Startz, 21, of Joliet, with battery and felony reckless conduct. Mounts, 27, of Romeoville, was also charged with reckless conduct.
But the future of the case is in question after Startz's attorneys argued in court Wednesday that the charges should be dropped because the punch was consensual and her conduct was not reckless under the law. Judge Edward Burmila, who reminded attorneys for both sides that he has the ability to act if a grand jury returns an indictment unsupported by law, said he would rule Tuesday.
"As a matter of law, it's not a battery," Ira Goldstein told the judge, later adding outside court: "It's like a boxing match where both sides get paid. Or say a guy is really proud of his stomach and says, 'Hey, take a shot.'
"Not in one million years did anyone think something like this could happen. It's a freak accident. It's a tragedy for everyone."
Her attorneys said Startz is not a professional or trained fighter. She is 5-foot-5 and 142 pounds, according to driver's license information filed after she was charged with a DUI a little over a month after Powell's death.
The punch was captured on at least one cellphone camera.
That recording shows Powell, in a red hat and black shirt, standing near a garage wall. A few seconds after a bystander raises his beer bottle in the air, Startz rears back and punches Powell on what looks like his left cheek, sending him staggering back toward the wall. He keeps his head down as Startz, who appears to be smiling along with some of the around 20 spectators, walks toward him.
About a minute after the first 911 call at 9:14 p.m. on Sept. 25 reporting an intoxicated man had fallen and was unconscious, a dispatcher was told that the man had fallen and hit a table, according to court records. Crest Hill police sorted out what really happened inside the garage on the 2500 block of Waterford Drive, and charges were brought after a "very close review" of the case, said a Will County state's attorney's spokesman.
"It was given a great deal of serious attention … it was not a matter that was taken lightly," said spokesman Charles Pelkie.
Assistant State's Attorney Colleen Griffin argued that the judge only has the ability to rule on the "legal sufficiency" of the indictment and "may not evaluate evidence to be presented at trial" about the bet that led to Powell's death.
Officials at the Will County coroner's office did not return calls Wednesday, but Goldstein said a report he was provided found that Powell died after a vein in his neck was opened by the force of the punch. He said a congenital defect contributed to the fatal injury.
Both Startz and Mounts remain free on bond. (Startz and Mounts... Go figure)