tHurSDay, July 9, 2009

Suburbs

Daily HeralD Section 1

Page 5
CLD

Thats one sweet ride

Artists sculpting life-size race car made of chocolate
By Harry Hitzeman
hhitzeman@dailyherald.com

Medical examiner details stab wounds

Forensic expert testifies suspects prints were on dagger used in Hoffman Estates slaying
By Alissa Groeninger
agroeninger@dailyherald.com

A team of artists in Elgin is sculpting NASCAR perfection in the form of a four-wheeled confection. Since last week, Jim Victor and two assistants have been holed up in a northwest side warehouse creating a life-size replica of the No. 18 Toyota Camry M&M car driven by Kyle Busch. But instead of fiberglass, aluminum and high octane, the primary ingredient for this car is you guessed it chocolate. The team first built a wood skeleton for the car and attached styrofoam before applying layer upon layer of some 1,500 pounds of melted Dove chocolate, 100 pounds of cocoa and 100 pounds of cocoa butter to form the sleek exterior of the the 15-foot-long race car. Victor, who has created sculptures of cheese, butter and chocolate before, said this is the largest sculpture hes ever done in terms of sheer volume. Its just big, he said. First of all, you have to find a place to work. My studio was inadequate. We left room for an inch of chocolate on it. Its real milk chocolate. The team arrived last Wednesday from Philadelphia and has logged 12-plus-hour days since, including working on July 4. During a visit Wednesday, Victor, his wife, Marie Pelton, and freelance sculptor Jimm Scannell painstakingly shaved off ripples of chocolate from the car as an air conditioning

Food sculptor Jim Victor holds a die-cast metal model of a chocolate NASCAR car he is creating in a warehouse in Elgin Wednesday.

p h o t o s b y J o h N s t A R K s / j s tar k s @ dai l y h e r a ld . co m

unit struggled to keep the temperature at 66 degrees. Victor said the piece was about 80 percent done; the final product will be colored brown with the number 18, headlights and other details carved into the surface. Chocolate is not an easy thing to work with, he said. Its slow, but you do see progress. The trio said they snack occasionally on their medium, but do they ever get sick of chocolate? I dont know if thats possible, Scannell said. On Friday, the car will be loaded into a refrigerated truck and moved to the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet for the Lifelock.com 400 race this weekend. The chocolate car will reside in an air-conditioned corporate tent until being moved to a permanent spot at a Mars Corp. warehouse. The chocolate car promotion is part of the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act through which people can go to realchocolate.

Food sculptor Marie Pelton, wife of Jim Victor, works on the passengers side of the life-size chocolate stock car.

com and enter their name for a chance to get a coupon for a free candy bar from now through September. For the staff at Elgin-based Hatch Distribution Services, where the sculpture is taking shape, the project has been its own relief of sorts. Joe Nitch, principal at Hatch distribution, said the whole warehouse smells sweet and its fun to watch the teams

progress. Ted Hathorn, Hatch operations manager, said a client, a public relations firm that represents Mars, asked if they could use space for the project. They wholeheartedly agreed. Its awesome, Nitch said. We figured it would be neat. I have no idea how theyre going to do it. Im a warehouse distribution guy. Theyre the artists.

Cook County prosecutors rested their case against Joseph Biedermann Wednesday following testimony from a county medical examiner describing the wounds suffered by his neighbor Terrance Hauser, whom authorities say Biedermann murdered. Biedermann, 30, claimed he acted in self-defense during the early morning hours of March 5, 2008, after Hauser attempted to sexually assault him at Hausers home in the Barrington Lakes Apartment Complex in the 2200 block of Hassell Road in Hoffman Estates. Biedermann lived in the same complex at the time. Ponni Arunkumar, a Cook County assistant medical examiner, described to the jury the 61 stab wounds the 38-year-old Hauser sustained. She also noted significant injury to Hausers jugular vein, lungs, liver, pancreas, renal artery, kidneys, spine and abdominal aorta, which is one of the main blood suppliers in the body. Arunkumar testified that any of these injuries could have caused death. Defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. pointed out, with Arunkumars agreement, that injuries to Hausers hands and arms could be consistent with a struggle. You cannot tell us who was the aggressor and who was the victim, Adam said. I can only testify to the injuries, Arunkumar said. Barry Adams, forensic expert with the Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Lab, testified there were eight fingerprints

from Biedermanns right hand on the dagger. The lab did not find any of Hausers prints on the weapon. The prints ranged from the tip to the top of the blade, although no fingerprints were recovered from the handle. Adams testified it did not appear the weapon was pulled from Biedermanns hands at any time because there were no smudged prints. In his cross-examination, Adam explained that Adams cannot tell when Biedermann handled the weapon or what the circumstances were. Another Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Lab expert, Kelly Lawren, testified that Biedermanns blood was found on a pair of size seven shoes. Hausers and Biedermanns blood was found on Biedermanns jeans, with majority of the blood coming from Hauser. Earlier, photos taken by police after Biedermanns arrest showed cuts on both forearms. Gregory Taylor of the Park Ridge Police, who assisted at the crime scene as a member of the Major Case Assistance Team, testified that upon entering Biedermanns apartment, he found the jeans and shoes, along with bloody socks and other clothes, in bowls of water. Authorities say the men met for the first time at a neighborhood bar several hours before the incident. Toxicology reports indicated Hauser had a blood-alcohol content of 0.277 and Biedermanns was 0.226. The defense will began calling its witnesses and presenting its evidence this morning in Rolling Meadows courtroom 109.

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