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Officer Clifton Lewis, 41, was working his second job as a
security officer at a convenience store when he was killed
trying to stop a robbery in December 2011. Alexander Villa,
Tyrone Clay and Edgardo Colon were all charged in connection
with the slaying.
Their attorneys have argued that the cases were tainted because
defense attorneys weren't present when Clay and Colon gave
incriminating statements and prosecutors withheld cellphone
records that showed they weren't at the crime scene when Lewis
was killed.
Colon was convicted in 2017, but the verdict was overturned in
2020. Clay remained in jail for almost 12 years without going to
trial. Prosecutors dropped all charges against both of them last
year just ahead of a hearing where detectives and prosecutors
would have had to testify about how they handled the case.
Villa was found guilty in 2019 but had asked a judge to toss out
his conviction and order a new trial. Prosecutors dropped the
charges during a court hearing on Wednesday, the Chicago
Sun-Times reported. He had faced counts of murder of a police
officer, aggravated battery and armed robbery with a firearm.
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