Prosecutors Dismiss Charges in Wrigleyville Murder Case

A man imprisoned for a fatal shooting in Wrigleyville more than 20 years ago was released Tuesday when prosecutors dropped all charges after a questionable conviction, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office announced.

Latherial Boyd, 47, was charged in connection with a street shooting near 3505 N. Clark St. on Feb. 24, 1990. A gunman approached victims Michael Fleming and Ricky Warner—who were selling drugs on the street—and fired several times, killing Fleming and wounding Warner.

Warner was shot in the neck and paralyzed, and three other people in the area were also shot.

But now State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez says Boyd and Carl Chatman, a Chicago man convicted of sexual assault, will walk free Tuesday. It’s a part of Alvarez’s newly created Conviction Integrity Unit that reinvestigates cases with uncertain verdicts.

“We remain committed to proactively re-investigating cases that involve wrongful or questionable convictions such as those that were delivered in the cases against Mr. Boyd and Mr. Chatman,” Alvarez said. “Above all else, our work as prosecutors is about seeking justice, even if that measure of justice means that we must acknowledge failures of the past.”

Boyd was convicted of First Degree Murder and Attempted First Degree Murder and sentenced to 82 years in prison, where he remained since 1990. According to Alvarez, however, Boyd’s conviction was dismissed based on a number of factors.

First, Boyd voluntarily went into the police station after learning he was a suspect. He was placed in a police line-up, but none of the eyewitnesses identified him as the shooter.

Second, the man paralyzed by the shooting was the only person to identify Boyd as the gunman. His story was inconsistent, though, and was questioned by police.

Both Boyd and Chatman filed appeals and post-conviction petitions during their incarceration, but they were ultimately denied by the courts.