‘That’s when I proceeded to punch him in the face’: Key witness in Jussie Smollett trial testifies about actor’s alleged plot to stage hate crime
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It was “colder than penguins’ feet” the night Abimbola Osundairo and his brother gathered their bleach and ski masks and headed to downtown Chicago, waiting to give a fake beating to actor Jussie Smollett.
The plan for the hoax attack had been carefully laid out days earlier, when Smollett revealed he was upset that folks at the “Empire” series’ studio weren’t taking a threatening letter he’d received more seriously, Osunairo testified Wednesday at Smollett’s criminal trial.
Shortly before 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2019, the brothers walked around Streeterville in the cold for a while, killing time until Smollett showed up at the prescribed location near his apartment building, Osundairo told the jury. Then they saw him and sprang into action.
“I said ‘Hey, aren’t you that Empire (homophobic slur)?’ and we said the other words, and my brother said ‘This is MAGA country,’” Osundairo testified. “That’s when I proceeded to punch him in the face and tussle … I threw him to the ground, put the bruise on his face, then I saw some car lights and then ran away.”
Days later, after media reports began to surface that Smollett had been the victim of a hate crime, Osundairo said he sent a text expressing condolences — which Smollett had directed him to do as another part of the hoax.
“Bruh say it ain’t true, I’m praying for speedy recovery,” read the text, which was displayed on a screen in Judge James Linn’s courtroom. “(Expletive) is wild.”
Osundairo’s long-awaited testimony, which continued into the evening Wednesday, is a crucial part of the case against Smollett because the brothers’ cooperation with police turned the actor from the victim of a racist and homophobic attack into a suspected hoaxer. Smollett now faces felony charges of lying to police about the attack.
Osunairo’s younger brother, Olabinjo, is expected to testify later in the week.
Smollett’s defense, meanwhile, has painted the Osundairo brothers as criminals and opportunistic liars, perhaps motivated by homophobia.
Osundairo walked into court before 2:30 p.m. wearing a black turtleneck with a thin gold chain around his neck. He had a matching black and gold mask. A number of his supporters crowded the courtroom as his questioning began.
Osundairo displayed no emotion on the stand, and often answered prosecutors’ questions in full sentences, without hesitation or flourishes.
Under questioning by special prosecutor Dan Webb, Osundairo said the hoax plan was hatched in late January 2019, when Smollett asked to meet him at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios and they went for a drive. It was then that Smollett showed him a photo of a letter he’d received at the studio days earlier depicting a gun and a stick figure hanging by a noose.
“(Smollett) talked about how the studio was not taking the hate mail seriously,” Osundairo testified. “... Then he proceeded to tell me he wanted me to beat him up.”
Asked how he felt about the unusual request, Osundairo said he “was confused.”
“I looked puzzled, and then he explained that he wanted me to fake beat him up,” Osundairo continued. “He told me that we would need another person to fake beat him up and he mentioned could my brother do it? I said yes.”
Abimbola said he agreed to the plan because he felt indebted to Smollett for getting him a stand-in role on “Empire,” and he knew Smollett could help him further his acting career.
Smollett then drove them to the North Side and pulled the car into an alley near the brothers’ apartment, where Olabinjo Osundairo joined them. “He told Ola he would want us to fake beat him up, then we went over the details of what he wanted us to say and do,” Abimbola Osundairo testified.
Smollett specifically requested that they yell “Empire” and the pro-Trump slogan “MAGA,” as well as scream slurs, Osundairo testified.
“He wanted me to punch him but he wanted me to pull the punch so I don’t hurt him … my brother Ola would tie the noose around his neck and pour bleach on him,” Osundairo told the jury. They set up a “dry run” for the attack for Jan. 27, where final details would be worked out, he said.
During their dress rehearsal, Osundairo said, the brothers and Smollett drove around the area where the attack was to occur. He said Smollett pointed to a police camera at the intersection by his building and said he wanted to use the footage of the attack “for media.”
The camera wound up not capturing the beating itself because it was pointed up the block.
Osundairo, who goes by the nickname “Bola,” said he became very close friends with Smollett, who pulled some strings to help him get a stand-in position on the “Empire” set.
“I would call him my brother,” he said.
Osundairo graduated from Lakeview High School and then fell in love with acting while in college at Quincy University in downstate Illinois. He testified he landed a spot as an extra in Spike Lee’s “Chiraq,” and that Lee “hand-picked” him to move up to a singing role.
Osundairo worked on “Empire” from 2016 to early 2019, first as an extra and then as a stand-in. Though Smollett had a prominent role on the show, Osundairo said he didn’t meet or get to know Smollett for the first year or so he was working there. Rather, he met Smollett in fall 2017 when a mutual friend invited him to Smollett’s house, he testified.
Over the next year and a half, Osundairo said, he and Smollett would hang out once or twice a month, often going to nightclubs, strip clubs or bathhouses. His younger brother joined them to hang out a handful of times. Smollett would also ask the brothers to buy him weed, molly and cocaine, Osundairo said.
In an attempt to refute the defense’s accusations that the Osundairos were homophobic, Webb asked if the fact Smollett is gay interfered with their friendship at all. He said it did not.
Osundairo, who is also an amateur boxer, said he founded “Team Abel,” which started off as an Instagram page and then expanded into creating health plans for clients.
“We got into creating diet or meal plans and exercise plans for people because they liked the way we looked, and they were inspired,” he said.
In January 2019, Smollett asked Osundairo to help him get physically toned for an upcoming music video shoot, according to his testimony. He said he agreed to put together a meal and exercise plan for Smollett, services he’d usually charge $30 to $80 apiece for, but intended to give to Smollett for free.
They wrote up a grocery list and meal plan for Smollett that included StarKist tuna, chicken thighs and avocados, and he told the actor to drink 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water before each meal, Osundairo told the jury.
Earlier Wednesday, a detective who interviewed Smollett about the alleged hate crime attack testified Wednesday that Smollett changed part of his story after he realized two people he knew — the Osundairo brothers — were in custody.
Smollett had initially described one of his attackers as white. But about two weeks later, when he came in for another police interview, he told Detective Robert Graves the attacker was “pale-skinned.”
Smollett had “put two and two together” and realized the Osundairo brothers were in custody for the crime, Graves said, but Smollett told police he felt they were innocent.
“He said it can’t be them, they’re black as sin,” Graves said, quoting Smollett as saying the brothers’ complexions were too dark. Ultimately, however, Smollett said he was willing to sign a complaint against the brothers, but his attorney stopped him, according to Graves.
Smollett’s lead defense attorney, Nenye Uche, pushed back hard on Graves’ characterization of Smollett’s words, asking if it was really believable that a Black man would use the phrase “black as sin.”
In addition, Uche pointed out, Smollett’s interview was not recorded — unlike the interrogation of the Osundairo brothers.
Graves took the stand on the third day of Smollett’s trial on charges of lying to police. Prosecutors alleged he orchestrated a fake hate crime on himself with the help of the Osundairo brothers, then reported to police that he had been a victim. Smollett has strenuously denied the accusation.
The brothers are expected to be crucial prosecution witnesses.
The day’s first witness was Chicago police Det. Detective Kimberly Murray, who interviewed the former “Empire” actor at Northwestern Memorial Hospital a few hours after the alleged attack.
Smollett told Murray that one attacker was wearing a ski mask but he could see through the “open eye hole” that the attacker appeared white, Murray testified.
Smollett told Murray about a racist letter he’d received at the “Empire” set, as well as a homophobic phone call where an anonymous called said, “Hey little (homophobic epithet)” before he’d hung up.
Murray also said Smollett seemed to be upset when she informed him that the attack itself had not been captured on surveillance cameras.
On cross-examination, Murray acknowledged that she knew Smollett had not been the one to call police, and said she understood Smollett wanted to keep the whole thing as private as possible.
Smollett had been reluctant to turn over his phone and medical records to police, Murray testified. On questioning from the defense, she acknowledged that actors like Smollett value their privacy and sometimes have information on their phone they could not release.
Defense attorney Heather Widell asked on cross-examination about Smollett’s identification of one of his attackers as white, including whether his actual description was that he “appeared to be pale.”
“No, he never said that to me,” Murray answered.
When Widell asked about how Smollett said he could tell the race of the assailant if he was wearing a ski mask, Murray said he said he could “see the bridge of the nose and the skin around the eye.”
Prosecutors objected strenuously to some of Widell’s questions about medical records, which seemed to hint at leaks in the Chicago Police Department and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Judge James Linn sustained the objections.
Smollett is accused of staging the January 2019 attack to gain favor and improve his status with his television show, which has since been canceled.
