During a tense hearing in front of a packed courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, a Cook County judge ordered a new trial for a man convicted of killing Chicago police Officer Clifton Lewis in 2011, after prosecutors agreed to a defense request amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.
Prosecutors told the court they don’t intend to retry Alexander Villa, 36, meaning that the Chicago man will be released from prison nearly 13 years after Lewis was shot just after Christmas by masked men while working security at a West Side convenience store.
Emotions ran high during the proceedings before Judge Carol Howard, with attorneys sharply criticizing the handling of the case by police and the original prosecutors who, they alleged, hid potentially exculpatory evidence. Family members for Lewis in turn said they are left without justice for the brutal slaying, as the case no longer has any charged defendants.
“It’s a sad moment because there’s two victims,” Villa’s sister, Melissa Villa, said after the hearing. “You have a person who was wrongfully incarcerated … and you have a family that is suffering the loss of their loved ones. No one wins.”
After the hearing, Villa’s family said they never gave up hope they would bring Villa home, while members of the Fraternal Order of Police demanded that Eileen O’Neill Burke, the likely winner of November’s election for state’s attorney, retry Villa or else lose any chance of support from the police union.
In a statement, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said that after Villa was sentenced, it “discovered evidence that had not been previously or timely provided to the defense.” It said it is “actively working to learn from the chain of events” to ensure it does not happen again.
“This information is potentially exculpatory, material, and relevant to a jury’s evaluation of the case, and therefore, we are compelled to agree to vacate this conviction and dismiss the charges,” the statement said. “We acknowledge the pain and frustration this causes the family of Officer Lewis, who deserves to be remembered for his dedicated service to the Chicago Police Department and the City of Chicago rather than for procedural errors that have marred our pursuit of justice and accountability.”
The sometimes contentious hearing was paused for about two hours after attorneys for Lewis’ mother and sister asked that family members be heard on the matter, which resulted in an out-of-court phone call with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Attorneys for the family sought to compel an evidentiary hearing or a new trial.
“I know you are disappointed and the family is disappointed, but if there is not enough evidence, there is not enough evidence,” Judge Howard said, adding that they can’t override charging decisions by prosecutors.
After the convictions were vacated, Villa’s tearful family members hugged and clapped while angry yells from outside the doors were audible inside the courtroom. Howard stopped the proceedings numerous times as sheriff’s deputies sought to restore order.
Villa appeared for the hearing via Zoom from a downstate prison, as his family filled the courtroom wearing shirts that said “Justice for Alex.”
Villa was among three men originally charged in the police officer’s shooting death in a case long plagued with allegations of misconduct. He was convicted of Lewis’ murder in 2019, though it took until August 2023 for him to receive a life sentence because of extensive litigation over whether prosecutors had handed over all evidence, as they were obligated to do.
Lewis was shot and killed by two masked men on Dec. 29, 2011, while working a second job as security at a West Side convenience store. Cook County prosecutors originally charged Villa, Tyrone Clay and Edgardo Colon in the case, which dragged on for more than a decade. Last year, prosecutors dropped charges against Clay and Colon.
At issue for all three defendants were accusations that the original prosecuting attorneys, Andrew Varga and Nancy Adduci, deliberately tried to hide evidence that could have pointed to the defendants’ innocence, or to different suspects. Adduci’s role in the case drew particular scrutiny because she most recently headed a unit that reviews potential wrongful convictions.
Adduci was fired last year and is now suing the office, alleging discrimination. Varga resigned in recent weeks, shortly before he was set to be fired, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Unlike his two co-defendants, Villa was convicted and sentenced, which put his fight for release on a more difficult, long-shot path. But in December, his attorneys filed a motion petitioning for a new trial, alleging that the prosecutors’ office had stumbled on evidence that should have been released to them earlier by Varga and Adduci.
In November 2023, a few months after Villa was sentenced, the prosecutors who took over after Varga and Adduci were taken off the case informed the defense that they unearthed a disc as they boxed up the case materials to send to a warehouse, according to the defense motion.
The disc, which was misfiled in a folder of recorded jail calls, contained an FBI cell tower analysis that showed Villa was texting his girlfriend at the time of the shooting, which was caught by surveillance footage that did not indicate that one of the shooters was texting, according to the motion.
The disc had handwriting on it that Varga confirmed was his, the motion said, even though Varga and Adduci had previously maintained to a judge that they were unaware of the analysis, which was not turned over to the defense and was only obtained through a subpoena to the FBI after Villa had already been convicted.
Jennifer Blagg, Villa’s attorney, also said the cell tower analysis showed the three co-defendants were not together, and that they didn’t communicate that day.
“The mapping completely exonerated the men,” she said.
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