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Man Accused of Killing "Notch Bermudez" Will Go on Trial

Posted: 12:44 PM Apr 27, 2012
Reporter: Hannah Saunders

Man Accused of Killing "Notch Bermudez" Will Go on Trial

In her testimony at the preliminary hearing for Richard Strong Friday, Sierra Medrano pointed out Strong as the killer of Ygnacio "Notch" Bermudez.

She and the man she called "Uncle Notch" visited the Loft to support some of their friends at a rap show November 9. She says she noticed a brief verbal confrontation between Bermudez and 37-year-old Richard Strong almost two hours before she and Bermudez left the club.

She describes the moment when they walked outside when Bermudez was shot multiple times, then died in her arms: "After the first two shots, my mind was gone."

Strong sat across from her, avoiding eye contact during the entire hour she spoke.

Brian French was also called to the stand to describe what he saw. He said the shooter's appearance and gun was very similar to what Medrano described. He also pointed out Strong as the man who killed Bermudez.

Investigators say the gun used in the murder could be the same one which the girlfriend of Strong, Lisa Pierce, claims was stolen from a trunk in her bedroom.

She describes her bedroom when she noticed it was gone: "I had $100 missing and the latches on my trunk were flipped up. Also, the drawers on my night stand were pulled open."

She says Strong could not have been the one to steal it, claiming she saw the gun in her trunk right after driving Strong to the bars on Michigan Avenue that night.

Pierce says whoever did steal it, didn't do it until the following afternoon while she was after work. When asked if she reported the theft to police, she answered: "Not at that time, no."

Strong was arrested in February in North Carolina, and will go on trial May 9.