State files case against Urbana man charged with murder on December 8

URBANA — As she thinks back to the night of her boyfriend’s death last December, a champagne woman who testified in court Tuesday remembers one thing clearly: the sound of gunshots.

She remembers Kadeem J. Moore, 34, turning toward their apartment door as it opened, and then “it was pop-pop-pop.”

Her testimony was presented as part of the state’s case against Turhan L. Sims, 35, who has been charged with first-degree murder for a Dec. 8, 2023, shooting in Champaign.

While the woman who testified said she had trouble remembering details and times since she and Moore had been drinking for several hours by the time of the shooting, she and her boyfriend had been arguing most of the evening.

Moore had just returned to the apartment after kicking him out for over a week following an earlier argument that escalated into physical beatings and placed her in the hospital for surgery on her nose and cheek.

But, she told prosecutor Elisabeth Pollock during cross-examination, that wasn’t why she kicked him out; she had previously had enough of his drug use and infidelity, and that was the first time their arguments turned violent.

“We’re not going to give the impression that he was just a wife beater,” she said.

However, previous fights had escalated into raised voices and lighter pushing and grabbing, often mediated by the woman’s daughter, who was 14 at the time.

The daughter also testified Tuesday, telling Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Larson that she, like her mother, believed Sims was the one who shot Moore.

Neither looked closely at the gunman, who opened the door wearing a black balaclava and fired four shots at Moore before leaving, but both said they recognized the paw print tattoo near his eye and knew his voice.

Sims, who called all seven children living in the apartment “Uncle,” had been staying at the apartment quite often in recent weeks.

He and Moore were friends, and Moore took in Sims’ dog because he didn’t have a good place for it; Sims stopped coming to take care of the pet and started spending more and more time there.

He also helped around the apartment and took care of the children while he was there.

On the night of December 8, the champagne lady said she brought home a bottle of tequila at Moore’s request and the couple drank it before and during dinner, so Moore invited Sims to join them.

As the evening wore on, the couple began arguing when the woman confirmed to Moore that she had slept with another close friend of his while he was away.

Tensions rose several times throughout the evening — the woman said at least twice, her daughter said four times — with the daughter frequently intervening to calm things down.

At one point, the woman said Moore had a gun, which she knew he didn’t have in the house and which he appeared to pick up near Sims, and pointed it at her face and said, “I should have you shoot, b—h .”

She didn’t see where the gun went after that.

Sims left the apartment at least once for unknown reasons, and the children, with the exception of the eldest daughter, spent most of the evening in a bedroom.

Later, the woman went to check on Moore after he had been in the bathroom for a while and saw him burning himself with cigarettes.

He moved to the living room but continued to burn himself until she took the cigarettes away, at which point he grabbed her by the neck.

At that moment, the door opened and the woman and her daughter remember hearing Sims say, “Why did you make me do this?” or “I told you not to make me do this.”

After the shots were fired, they both said the man said, “You never saw me.”

The woman said she called a friend she had been communicating with all evening — the man she slept with while Moore was away, who immediately told her to call the police.

She did, and Larson played the recording of that 911 call in court so she could confirm it was her.

“My friend just got shot. …Someone just barged in and shot him, he’s dead.”

Multiple Urbana police officers and detectives testified Tuesday, confirming the legitimacy of their bodycam footage, which showed the woman standing over Moore’s body as they arrived and began life-saving measures.

The children who were in the house that night all hid in the bedroom when the police arrived and were eventually helped out through the window so they didn’t have to go through the crime scene.

Other evidence presented Tuesday included clips from outside security cameras at other apartments in the building. Neither filmed the shooter’s arrival or departure, but did show Sims and Moore going in and out at other times.

Dr. Shiping Bao, a forensic pathologist, also presented his findings from the autopsy performed on Moore, identifying two bullet entry points on the right side of his chest, one on his buttock and one on his arm.

Darrin McCartney of the Urbana Police Department, the lead detective on the case, began testifying Tuesday. The hearing was scheduled to resume this morning as Chief Judge Randy Rosenbaum said he did not want to keep the jury unnecessarily late Tuesday night.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Sims faces a prison sentence of 20 to 60 years.