Illinois appellate judges on Thursday threw out a longtime inmate’s sentence for a double murder, paving the way for prosecutors to drop charges and overriding an unusual decision from a Cook County judge.
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A third man had his murder charges dropped in the killing of two teenage girls in a 1995 gang-related attack on the Southwest Side.
After the Illinois Appellate Court ordered Wayne Antusas’ 54-year prison sentence be vacated Thursday, Cook County prosecutors dropped the charges against him, court records show.
Antusas had initially been sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Carrie Hovel and Helena Martin, both 13. But that sentence was reduced following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that banned life sentences for defendants who were sentenced as minors.
Antusas Thursday was ordered released from prison after prosecutors dropped the charges, according to court records.
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Cook County prosecutors Friday dropped charges against a man who was convicted in a 1995 double gang-related murder that claimed the lives of two teenage girls on the Southwest Side.
Nicholas Morfin, now 45, spent more than two decades in prison for the deadly shooting of Carrie Hovel and Helena Martin, both 13.
The girls were killed after 15-year-old Eric Anderson, the son of a Chicago police officer, fired at a rival gang’s van.
Morfin was accused of helping plan the attack.
Ultimately, Morfin had not proved his innocence, Judge Arthur Hill Jr. said Friday. But the judge added he was vacating Morfin’s conviction and granting him a new trial on the basis prosecutors withheld evidence that could have exonerated Morfin during his initial trial.
A Cook County judge on Friday threw out the case of a man who spent decades behind bars for the devastating double murder of two 13-year-old girls in 1995, paving the way for his release from prison.