The judge who presided over the trial of one of the alleged gunmen in the 2011 killing of an off-duty Chicago police officer will get to rule on whether to grant a new trial.
Judge Timothy Joyce on Wednesday denied a motion from lawyers for Alexander Villa to replace Judge James Linn, based on allegations that Linn— who presided over Villa’s 2019 trial for the slaying of CPD Officer Clifton Lewis — is biased against Villa’s argument the verdict was marred by misconduct by police and prosecutors.
Villa hired new lawyers to handle his post-trial motions after a jury found him guilty. Post-trial motion hearings usually wind up a few months after a verdict, nearly always with a denial and a sentencing hearing.
But Villa’s new defense team has turned up a trove of evidence that they say police and prosecutors hid from Villa’s trial lawyer, including cellphone data that purportedly shows Villa and his two co-defendants were nowhere near the crime scene when Lewis was killed.
Much of that evidence was shared with Villa’s two co-defendants, which prompted the judge presiding over their cases to grant a sweeping subpoena for records on the investigation and a massive joint federal-CPD dragnet targeting Villa and members of the Spanish Cobras street gang.
In June, prosecutors dropped charges against co-defendants Edgardo Colon and Tyrone Clay on the morning of a hearing in which detectives and assistant state’s attorneys who worked on the Lewis investigation were to testify.
But the same evidence has not particularly moved Linn, who has granted Villa’s lawyers several extensions of filing deadlines, but questioned whether any of the new evidence is compelling enough to overturn the trial verdict. In chambers, Villa’s lawyers said Linn told them he wanted to close out Villa’s case before his retirement at the end of this month, and said he would quash a subpoena for more records from the state. The state turned over the records anyway, Villa’s lawyer, Jennifer Blagg, said Wednesday.
Joyce said that the differing rulings of the judge in Clay and Colon’s case did not indicate that Linn was biased, or even incorrect in his decisions.
“Much of what gets argued is that perhaps Judge Linn is wrong. Judges are human beings, and if you sit in this building you’re going to get things wrong,” Joyce said, adding that review by higher courts is meant to catch judicial errors.
“The defendant wants me to conclude that [Linn] is wrong, and because he is wrong, he must be biased. ... I don’t know if he is right or wrong.”
Next week the case will return to Linn’s courtroom, where the judge for months has asked Villa’s lawyers to file their motion for a new trial. Colon had been found guilty in 2017 and was two years into an 84-year prison sentence when an appeals court overturned the verdict. Colon was awaiting a second trial, and Clay had yet to go to trial when the charges were dropped.
In 2011, Lewis lived near M&M Quick Foods in the Austin neighborhood, and he had taken a job as a security guard to save money for a wedding after proposing to his girlfriend on Christmas. Four days later, he was working at the store when two masked men entered and a gun battle ensued. Lewis’ former fiancée died in June, and prosecutors announced they were dropping the charges against Clay and Colon the day before her funeral.
