IL IL - Holly Staker, 11, Waukegan, 17 Aug 1992

[zwiebel]

In a shocking development, new DNA evidence has linked the terrible rape and murder of 11 yr old Holly Staker in Lake Cnty in 1992, to the killing of 39 yr old Delwin Foxworth in 2000.

Both victims were killed by the same man.

But two different people were both convicted of those murders and it is not their DNA. So it looks like two wrongful convictions and a dangerous killer still on the loose, if he is still alive. It's frightening really. They were brutal murders and I'm wondering if there might even be more victims.

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/545/article/p2p-80462274/

 

[zwiebel]

The man who served nearly 20 years in prison for Delwin's murder says the families deserve justice and he hopes they receive it, but wishes this evidence had come to light before he served nearly 20 years in prison.

These are such different murders - an 11 yr old girl and 39 yr old man, with 11 years between the crimes.......it seems likely the person may have committed other crimes during that time.

I haven't read up on Delwin's murder. There are too many hints it was very bad. Not up to it at the moment.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/06...ts-1992-murder-of-11-year-old-to-second-case/

 

[Alyssa]

Wow, she was was stabbed 27 times....an 11 year old. That's a lot of rage.

http://www.leagle.com/decision/20011137777NE2d360_11137.xml/PEOPLE%20v.%20RIVERA

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-lake-county-dna-tests-met-20141209-story.html

New forensic tests are expected to conclude by next month in a murder case under dispute in Lake County, and a lawyer for the man imprisoned for the slaying said tests so far have neither linked his client to the crime nor identified an alternative suspect.

The case of Marvin Williford took on additional significance earlier this year after DNA suggested a link between his alleged crime and one of Lake County's most notorious unsolved cases, the rape and murder of Holly Staker in 1992 in Waukegan.

Juan Rivera spent 20 years in prison for Holly Staker's murder before appeals judges freed him in 2012, citing semen evidence indicating an unidentified man had sexually assaulted the girl.

 

[time]

Wow... I'm stunned by this, glad the guy got out of prison...

Now, three years after Rivera was exonerated and freed from prison with the help of DNA evidence, his attorneys have made a startling new allegation in a federal lawsuit that police planted the blood. Their evidence: The shoes were not available for sale anywhere in the country until after Holly was fatally stabbed in Waukegan.

What's more, recent DNA testing on the pair of black Voit high-tops has for the first time detected another substance mixed in with the blood. Lab tests discovered that the second substance matches the genetic profile of the as-yet unidentified suspect whose semen was found in Holly's body, buttressing the claim that authorities tampered with evidence, Rivera's lawyers say.

"The only realistic inference from the foregoing evidence," the lawyers wrote in court papers filed in federal court late Tuesday, "is that someone endeavored to plant Holly Staker's blood on Mr. Rivera's Voit shoes and in doing so inadvertently planted both her blood there and the blood of the as-yet unidentified killer."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-juan-rivera-shoes-met-20141210-story.html

 

[bessie]

A lawyer for the man convicted of Foxworth's murder said the evidence shows that his client, Marvin Tyrone Williford, is innocent — as he has long insisted.

The DNA match also buttresses evidence that Juan Rivera was wrongly convicted of Holly's rape and murder and that the failure to identify and arrest her real killer allowed that same person to take part in Foxworth's murder eight years later, according to one of Rivera's attorneys.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...cond-murder-8-years-later-20140610-story.html

---

Eleven-year-old Holly Staker was raped and murdered on August 17, 1992, while

[777 N.E.2d 361]​

she was baby-sitting at Dawn Engelbrecht's home in Waukegan. Engelbrecht returned home early from her work when she learned her five-year-old son, Blake, had been locked out of her house and that Holly was not answering. She found her two-year-old daughter, Taylor, on a bed in the children's bedroom and Holly's body on the floor. Defendant was incarcerated for an unrelated crime sometime after Holly's murder. An investigation led police to interview defendant, as he had made several statements to another prisoner, Edward Martin, regarding the murder. Defendant made inculpatory statements to police officers and later provided written statements to the officers.

On November 12, 1992, defendant was indicted for Holly's murder. In November 1993 defendant was tried and convicted on three counts of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence, and this court reversed and remanded for a new trial. See People v. Rivera, No. 2-94-0075 (November 19, 1996) (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23).
http://www.leagle.com/decision/20011137777NE2d360_11137.xml/PEOPLE%20v.%20RIVERA

 

[time]

Thanks bessie, I was just reading on the other case... DNA doesn't match either of the guys convicted arrested in these two cases. Kind of boggles the mind?

 

[time]

Just from what I've read, they do not know who the DNA in these cases belongs to.

 

[time]

[h=3]Suit: Cops Planted Blood on Shoes; Here's How We Know[/h]

 

[bostonstrong]

the lengths the prosecutor went to get a third conviction on juan rivera at his last trial in 2009 were disturbing and disgusting.

claimed the 'dna evidence' wasnt relevent to the murder cause holly was promiscious. because she was molested. no evdience or witnesses to back any of this up other then his say so.

i know wrongful convictions and police/prosector misconduct are widespread but there seems to be an epidimic of it in illinois. anything to get a confession (juan rivera, kevin fox, jerry hobbs, melissa calusinski) anything to get a convction.

 

[Rayemonde]

I thought this was interesting... Juan Rivera confessed to killing Holly Staker. Even though he didn't do it.

Following his exoneration, Rivera was awarded $20 million, the largest wrongful conviction settlement in United States history, including $2 million from John E. Reid & Associates, who were known for the Reid technique of questioning suspects. This technique has been widely criticized for its history of eliciting confessions that were later determined to be false.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Rivera_(wrongful_conviction)

A *lot* of LE agencies still seem to use the Reid technique, even on vulnerable people such as minors and people with learning disabilities. And once it extracts anything that could be construed as a confession, that's it - the suspect is guilty in the eyes of LE, of the public, of any jury... It's scary to think how many more people there could be who are wrongfully imprisoned

Just pay attention next time interview transcripts or video interrogation of suspects are released - are LE using the Reid technique or a variation of it? and does that cast doubt on what the suspect says?

 

[bschwally]

Does anyone know if those closest to Holly (family, family friends) were DNA swabbed? I don't understand how a stranger would stab an 11 yo girl that many times.