A new DNA test of blood evidence from the 1994 murder of a prominent Waukegan businessman has been found to match someone other than the man who has served 15 years in prison for the crime, his lawyer said Monday.
James L. Edwards, 62, has been incarcerated since 1996, when he was convicted in the bludgeoning death of Fred Reckling, owner of Grand Appliance and TV.
Edwards, then already a convicted murderer, has argued that he was coerced into a confession after a 26-hour interrogation.
"We have been advised that there is a potential (DNA) hit, and it is not my client," said Edward's attorney, Paul DeLuca.
Officials will now try to get a fresh sample of the person's DNA to verify the match, he said. The person's identity has not been disclosed.
Reckling, 71, was attacked while closing his store on Dec. 8, 1994. Employees found him the next day in a pool of blood, according to news reports. His car had been stolen.
Blood evidence from the car and crime scene did not match Edwards or Reckling, court documents show. At the time, prosecutors downplayed the blood's significance and said it could have come from others who had used the car, according to court transcripts.
Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller, who personally prosecuted the case, declined to comment Monday.
He sought the death penalty during the trial, but the jury opted instead for a life sentence without parole.
Edwards had come to light as a suspect when he was picked up for questioning in a separate Waukegan armed robbery In January 1996. Detectives said he then confessed to a slew of other crimes, including Reckling's murder and the shooting death of a woman in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
After his Lake County trial, Edwards was convicted of the Ohio crime in 1997 and got another life sentence for that murder.
Defense attorneys in the Ohio case were challenged by an eloquent but uncooperative client prone to filing his own motions, said Vicki Ward, his former lawyer. He "prided himself on his legal prowess," and he ignored lawyers' advice to take a plea deal rather than risk going to trial, Ward said.
Edwards had already served 14 years in prison for the beating death of Cora Young, 83, of Chicago, according to news reports. He was released from prison in 1991.
After his conviction for Reckling's murder, Lake County officials initially denied Edwards' early attempts to have the DNA checked for potential matches. Prosecutor Michael Mermel argued before a Lake County judge in 2007 that the testing "is not going to exculpate the defendant."
Judge John Phillips agreed, denying Edwards' request. Edwards, who had represented himself in court, appealed his case. The Illinois Supreme Court issued a supervisory order on June 30, 2010, that directed Lake County's Circuit Court to test the DNA.
DNA evidence has derailed other Lake County cases in which a defendant was allegedly coerced into confessing a crime he did not commit.http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=dvd+with+media+on+it&_sacat=See-All-Categories
The most notable example is the case of Jerry Hobbs, who spent five years in jail awaiting trial on charges he stabbed his 8-year-old daughter and her 9-year-old friend to death in 2005. Though prosecutors have known since at least 2008 that semen found in his daughter's body didn't match him, they insisted that didn't rule him out as the killer. But last year, the DNA was found to match another man, and prosecutors dropped the charges against Hobbs, releasing him in August.
Just last month, the man who allegedly matches the evidence, former Marine Jorge Torrez, was charged with a murder that occurred four years after the Zion case. Torrez pleaded not guilty Friday to murdering Naval Petty Officer Amanda J. Snell, 20, in her Washington-area barracks in 2009.
Lisa Black and Dan Hinkel are Tribune reporters; Ruth Fuller is a freelance reporter.
lblack@tribune.com
dhinkel@tribune.com
