Nov. 08--After helplessly waiting nearly two decades for justice in the murders of her mother and 8-year-old daughter, Lucy Rhynes seemed incredulous moments before a jury convicted an ex-lover of the slayings in 2011.
"This is really happening," she told a Tribune reporter as tears welled in her eyes. "I believed justice would never come."
But now a legal case that was hampered for years by sloppy work by Cicero police and allegations of corruption in the department has been overturned on appeal.
An appeals court this week ordered a new trial for William Dukes, 46, who was convicted of the 1993 killings and is serving a life sentence, ruling that the trial judge had wrongly allowed jurors to hear admissions Dukes made during plea negotiations.
Rhynes, who moved downstate with her husband after the deaths, could again have to testify in court about discovering her loved ones' bodies. She could not be reached for comment Friday.
A spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office said the office disagreed with the 1st District Appellate Court ruling and was evaluating its options.
In August 1993, Bridget Cannady, 8, and her grandmother, Marilyn Williams, 46, were found strangled in the bathtub of their Cicero home. Investigators discovered the girl also had been raped.
Bridget's brother, Dustin, who was 2 at the time, identified Dukes, his mother's ex-lover, as one of the killers, but prosecutors did not believe his testimony would hold up in court.
Dukes was arrested in 2004 after his alleged accomplice, Marko Tomazovich, agreed to testify against him and pubic hair found on a blood-soaked comforter in the home matched Dukes' DNA.
While being questioned by Chicago police, Dukes said he would tell prosecutors he killed both victims if they agreed not to seek the death penalty. But in the end, he never made a statement.
The trial judge allowed jurors to hear that Dukes had confessed to the killings, but the appeals court said the statements were inadmissible because they were made as part of plea negotiations.
A separate remark in which Dukes said he "wanted to get this off (his) chest" that he took part in the killings would be admissible at a retrial, the appeals court ruled.
sschmadeke@tribune.com
Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
