An Illinois man killed a police officer who had just proposed to his fiancée a few days before his death. Now he claims prosecutors framed him.
A Chicago judge sentenced Alexander Villa, 36, to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the shooting death of Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis. A jury found Villa guilty four years ago and convicted him of first-degree murder.
“First and foremost, my condolences go out to the Lewis family, but I’m not the person that did this. I will fight this to the appellate court, I will fight this in the Supreme Court, but I know where I will never have to fight this. That’s in God’s court. He knows I’m innocent,” said Villa to a packed courtroom with family members and police officers, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In 2011, two men busted into a convenience store in the West Side’s Austin neighborhood where Lewis had taken a second job as a security guard to earn extra cash and save for his upcoming wedding to his longtime fiancée Latrice Tucker. Upon their forceful entrance, the two men exchanged gunshots with the victim until Villa jumped on the counter and fatally shot Lewis multiple times before taking away the officer’s gun.
Months after, a joint operation led by the Chicago Police Department and the FBI yielded more than 100 arrests, including Villa and the Spanish Cobras gang. Two other co-defendants, Edgardo Colon, who was alleged to be the getaway driver, and Tyrone Clay, the second gunman, were arrested.
Though Colon was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to 84 years in prison, his case was tossed out in June after an appellate court established his confession was inadmissible. Also, Clay, who had been behind bars for 12 years awaiting trial, also had his confessions inadmissible and released. The court discovered both men confessed under duress after lengthy interrogations and investigators denying them legal representation after multiple requests for a lawyer.
In addition, the three defendants' cell phone data created by the FBI showed their phones were not in the same vicinity of the crime scene. The data used to create the map was lost by the police subsequently. As a result, Villa’s defense team argued via motions for a new trial, a newly assigned judge, and a special prosecutor, but all three motions were denied.
"In this country, you're guilty until proven innocent. His family protested outside the Cook County Courthouse ahead of the sentencing. It's two families. The family of the victim, and our family. It's just a huge loss," said Villa's sister Melissa Villa, reported CBS News.
Tucker never married and died of cancer in June.
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