| On May 28, 2007, police in Chicago, Illinois, arrested 37-year-old Omar Moore on charges of murder and aggravated battery. Moore was accused of a January 14, 2007 attack on 44-year-old Wilbur Martin and 37-year-old Henry Johnson. Martin was beaten to death. Johnson was knocked unconscious and survived.
In September 2009, Moore went to trial in Cook County Circuit Court, charged with Martin’s murder and the aggravated battery of Johnson.
Johnson testified that he was a cocaine addict, and on the day of the incident, he met Martin at an abandoned house near 54th Street and Shields Avenue, where Martin was scavenging aluminum siding to get money. Johnson said they were leaving the area with a cart loaded with metal they were taking to a junkyard at 59th Street and Shields to sell it.
Johnson said they were at the corner of 57th Street and Shields when a maroon car pulled up, and Moore got out. He said Moore walked toward them, saying, “You think this is a joke or something.” Johnson said Moore started swinging at him. He missed the first time, then grazed him with his second swing. Johnson fell down, his head hit the pavement, and he was knocked unconscious. He said the next thing he knew he woke up in the hospital. That’s when he learned that Martin had been severely beaten with a metal pipe and was clinging to life.
He said that on January 24, 2007, he identified Moore in a photographic lineup.
Martin died from his injuries on January 30, 2007.
Johnson said he identified Moore in a live lineup in May 2007. He admitted he was under the influence of cocaine at the time of the attack, but said that did not affect his ability to identify Moore. He said he had spoken to a defense investigator prior to trial, but denied that he said the police offered to pay him to implicate Moore.
Robert Delaney testified that he was with some friends near the scene of the attack when he saw two men running toward him. He said that the first man, later identified as Martin, was running fast. The second man was yelling at Delaney and his friends to stop Martin because the man had been robbed. Delaney tried, but missed. Delaney’s friend, Clifton Elliott, was able to push Martin to the ground. Delaney said the second man then struck Martin four to six times in the head with a pipe, dropped the pipe, walked to a car and drove away.
Delaney admitted that he had identified Moore in a lineup as the man who beat Martin, but said he had done so because police threatened to charge him in the attack. He said he could not identify the attacker. He admitted he had given a written statement to the police incriminating Moore, but only after the police told him to implicate Moore.
Over a defense objection, Delaney testified that later on the day of the attack, an “unknown Black male” drove up to him and told him to keep his mouth shut. No evidence was presented as to the identity of the man, and Delaney said he was not afraid of Moore.
Elliott testified he could not remember any incident involving a man being beaten with a pipe. He said he did not tell police anything because he knew nothing about it. He admitted he had signed a written statement for police, but said that it “is what they [the police] told me. I never told them nothing.”
He said police had scared him because he had pending federal charges, so he “signed whatever they gave me, plain and simple.” He said he had been threatened by police, denied the use of the bathroom, and signed because a prosecutor ordered him to do so.
Elliott was questioned about his testimony to a grand jury that implicated Moore. He admitted making the statement to the grand jury, but said it was false. “I’m telling you all this statement right here; I don’t know nothing about this. All I know is…I got in my car and left.” He denied seeing Moore hit Martin with a pipe.
He said he met with a prosecutor prior to testifying before the grand jury, and said he knew nothing about the attack. Elliott said the prosecutor became “frustrated” and sent in a “lady detective” who told him to testify in the grand jury because “We need to get this monster off the street. You’re going to go in here and do it.” Elliott said that while the detective did not make an explicit threat, “it looked like [a threat] if you ask me.”
To rebut the recantations, the prosecution presented testimony from several prosecutors and detectives in the case. According to the testimony, Delaney denied being threatened by police, and he did not complain of any mistreatment. The witnesses asserted that both Delaney and Elliott had identified Moore as the attacker.
Detectives Tim Cerven and Paulette Wright testified that Elliott identified Moore in a photographic lineup. They denied threatening Delaney. Detective Cerven testified that Johnson identified Moore in a photographic lineup. Detectives Carlton Flagg and Allen Nathaniel testified that Delaney identified Moore in a live lineup. Both denied that they told Delaney whom to identify.
The defense called Jerry Wilson, a private investigator, who testified that he interviewed Johnson in April 2009. He said Johnson told him that Moore was not the attacker and that the detectives had offered him money to identify Moore. Wilson said Johnson told him that when he had refused to make an identification in a photographic lineup, a female detective threatened to charge him in the beating.
Betty Robin testified that she heard screaming and went outside. She said that she was about 15 to 20 feet from a “street fight.” She said about four people were involved and one was swinging a pipe at a man who was on the ground. She said she had “a good look” at the pipe-wielding man, but did not identify Moore in either a photographic or live lineup. Robinson denied telling police that Moore was “the closest one who resembled the guy with the pipe out” of those in the photo array.
On September 24, 2009, the jury convicted Moore of first-degree murder and aggravated battery. He was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
In September 2011, the First District Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the convictions.
In 2013, attorney Jennifer Blagg filed an amended post-conviction petition on behalf of Moore. The petition was supported by an affidavit from Johnson recanting his trial testimony. In the affidavit dated August 23, 2012, Johnson said that he and Martin were on their way to the junkyard and had to cross into “hostile [gang] territory.” He said they were harassed by some men who were angry because Martin and Johnson would not buy drugs from them.
Johnson said Martin had “mouthed off” and the men came after them. He said that he slipped and fell and lost consciousness. When he awoke, detectives told him he had implicated Moore. Johnson said he told the police he didn’t know why he would implicate Moore since Moore was not there. He said the police brought him to the station a few days after he was released from the hospital, showed him a photographic lineup, and asked him if he knew anyone in it. He said he knew Moore. He said that when he viewed the live lineup, the officers asked if he could see Moore and he answered affirmatively. He said that two police officers gave him small sums of money whenever he needed it. The payments were not disclosed to the prosecution or the defense in Moore’s case.
He said that eventually, police arrested him and took him to the County Jail. He said that the officers had “said something about contempt.” After two months in jail, he said he agreed to testify what the police “wanted to hear.” He said he “went along” with the prosecutor who “rehearsed” his testimony with him.
In addition, Jason Smith provided an affidavit saying that on the day of the incident, he saw Elliott and Delaney smoking and drinking. He saw a man who “looked sorta homeless” run toward them, being chased by another man. Smith said the man who was chasing was not Moore. Smith said Delaney tripped the homeless man, and Elliott held him down while others beat him. Smith said he never saw a pipe. Smith said Moore would not have been in the area because the territory was controlled by the Gangster Disciples street gang and Moore was a member of a rival gang.
Prentiss Hayes gave an affidavit saying that he saw a crowd of men “stomping…and hitting” a man on the ground. Hayes said Moore was not among the crowd of men.
Ultimately, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Claps ruled that Moore was entitled to a hearing on the petition. In April 2018, following a hearing, Judge Claps vacated Moore’s convictions and ordered a new trial.
In a 15-page ruling, Judge Claps pinned his decision primarily on Smith’s testimony. He ruled that Smith’s testimony at the hearing, “when weighed against the evidence presented at trial, provides this Court with a basis to find that the outcome at trial could have possibly differed. Accordingly, petitioner is granted a new trial.”
On June 12, 2018, the prosecution dismissed the charges and Moore was released from prison.
He subsequently filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Chicago. The case was settled in May 2021 for $99,999.
– Maurice Possley
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