Nov. 22--With the recent return of Jorge Torrez to stand trial on charges he killed two young girls, Lake County law enforcement authorities face logistical challenges and potentially uncomfortable legal proceedings as they seek to close a case that has haunted the county for nearly a decade.
Jail officials are now housing a man with a startling criminal record beyond the charges he stabbed two girls in Zion in 2005. Torrez, 26, is serving a federal death sentence and five life terms for a murder and several attacks on women in Virginia, and authorities there offered evidence he had a shank in prison and plotted to kill witnesses. David Wathen, chief of the Lake County Jail, acknowledged he's looking forward to Torrez being housed elsewhere post-trial, saying, "We're hoping for a really speedy trial."
That trial could cast some police and prosecutors in an unflattering light, since Torrez was only charged with the killings here after authorities spent five years blaming the crime on Jerry Hobbs, the father of one of the two girls. Torrez's lawyer, Jed Stone, said he may call as witnesses police officers who built the case against Hobbs, who confessed after an aggressive interrogation but was exonerated after DNA purportedly linked the crime to Torrez.
That would invert the usual courtroom dynamic in which police officers are called to the witness stand by prosecutors seeking to illustrate a case's strengths. Instead, the police could be called in Torrez's trial to publicly detail how they made a case prosecutors since have disavowed.
"I think (authorities) have established that there is a great deal of doubt as to what happened to these children," Stone said.
Torrez appeared in court Thursday under heavy security. Listed on the Virginia sex offender registry at 5-foot-6 and 155 pounds, he was shackled at the feet with his hands cuffed to a leather belt and two correctional officers looming over him.
Torrez pleaded not guilty to killing Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, on Mother's Day 2005.
Immediately after the bodies were found, authorities focused on Laura's father, who confessed after an interrogation that spanned about 24 hours. By 2007, scientists had found that DNA in his daughter's body didn't match his genetic profile, but prosecutors argued that the evidence didn't clear him, saying the girl could have touched semen while playing in a wooded spot where couples went for sex.
Hobbs sat in prison until 2010, and he was freed only after Torrez was arrested for several attacks on women, including a rape and abduction, and DNA allegedly linked him to the Zion slayings. Hobbs went free while Torrez's legal troubles deepened, culminating in a federal death sentence earlier this year for killing a 20-year-old Navy sailor in 2009 in the barracks building they shared when he was in the Marines.
The investigation into the Zion double-homicide has added to Lake County's reputation for jailing the innocent. Hobbs' was one of four cases in which prosecutors disregarded forensic evidence indicating they'd prosecuted an innocent man for rape or murder. All four cases collapsed toward the end of Michael Waller's 22-year tenure as state's attorney, which ended in 2012. He was replaced by Mike Nerheim, who promised reform.
Hobbs returned to his native Texas and sued various Lake County authorities before settling for about $8 million.
Torrez was charged with the Zion killings more than two years ago, but he had to stand trial for the sailor's murder in Virginia before returning to Lake County. He arrived Nov. 14.
Jailers consider him a potential danger to others, and he's being housed in a cell by himself and allowed an hour of recreation outside his cell each day, Wathen said. Torrez is not being allowed to interact with other prisoners, Wathen said. When he needs to be moved from the jail, he'll be transported in leg shackles with his hands cuffed to a belt and accompanied by a team of jail officers trained in handling serious incidents and potentially dangerous inmates, the jail chief said.
Like other inmates, Torrez can speak with visitors via video, Wathen said.
In court Thursday, LaTonya Burton, another of Torrez's lawyers, asked for the earliest possible trial date. Judge Daniel Shanes set trial for Jan. 26, though he was openly skeptical the parties would be ready. Stone said Burton pushed for an early date as "a matter of keeping the prosecution's feet to the fire." Though Torrez is allegedly linked to the crime by DNA, Stone said he intends to hold the state to its obligation to prove Torrez guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Nerheim has voiced determination to try Torrez despite the fact he's already serving five life sentences and is serving a death sentence for other crimes. He's noted the viciousness of the double slaying and said he hopes to provide closure on a matter that has lingered for almost 10 years.
The prosecutor's office is ready for trial, he said, though that likely remains several months away.
"We're not going to rush," Nerheim said.
dhinkel@tribpub.com
