Pursuing such a strategy would likely be fraught with risk for the defense —including that Legghette himself would presumably need to testify about what happened on the bottom of the stairwell, exposing him to a harsh cross-examination.

The tactic could easily backfire with jurors.

In an interview with Chicago Magazine last year, Legghette appeared to hint that he acted in self-defense, comparing himself to Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager fatally shot in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer.

"Would Trayvon Martin have been guilty with George Zimmerman if it had went the other way?" Legghette was quoted as saying in the story.

Under Illinois law, a defendant claiming self-defense can attempt to introduce evidence of the victim's history or tendencies toward violence, even if the defendant could not have known about that history at the time of the incident. The practice has been criticized as a way to unfairly smear crime victims.