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Defense hopes to pin Zion girls' murders on exonerated father

The defense for a former Zion man accused of the notorious 2005 murders of two little girls plans to pin the slayings on one of the girl's fathers when the case goes to trial next year.

Jed Stone, the attorney for Jorge Avila-Torrez, said in court Tuesday that his case will implicate Jerry Hobbs in the slaying of his daughter, 8-year-old Laura Hobbs, and her 9-year-old friend Krystal Tobias on Mother's Day in 2005.

Hobbs initially confessed to the slayings and was charged, but he later was exonerated after DNA evidence linked Avila-Torrez to the killings.

"Our defense in this case is that Hobbs did it, he confessed to it," Stone said. "And the DNA is junk."

Stone said he's filed documents to obtain the DNA test results that incriminate Avila-Torrez and will have them reviewed by his own experts.

Avila-Torrez, a 25-year-old former Marine, was returned to Lake County in December to stand trial on 18 counts of murder alleging he killed the two girls and left their bodies in a Zion park. Torrez was 16 at the time of the deaths and lived in the neighborhood, authorities say.

Police initially zeroed in on Jerry Hobbs as a suspect after he found the girls' bodies. He later confessed to the killings after being interrogated by investigators for nearly 24 hours.

However, after spending five years in the Lake County jail awaiting trial, DNA evidence pointed to someone else. Hobbs was released from jail and has sued county for wrongful imprisonment.

While Hobbs was incarcerated in Illinois, Avila-Torrez was charged in the 2009 murder of a Navy sailor at a barracks in Virginia and for stalking attacks on three women in northern Virginia in 2010, including one who was raped, choked and left for dead. He was sentenced to death for the murder last year and also is serving five life sentences plus 168 years for the 2010 attacks.

DNA evidence collected from Avila-Torrez later linked him to the Zion slayings.

If found guilty of the girls' murders, Torrez could be sentenced to another 100 years in prison. Officials said a conviction normally would result in a life sentence, but because Torrez was 16 at the time of the killings, his maximum is 100 years.

Hobbs left the area following his release and is currently is being held in Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing, Oklahoma, on charges of possession of methamphetamine and cannabis, records show.

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The defense for a former Zion man accused killing two little girls there in 2005 say it will try to pin the killings on one of the girl's fathers, Jerry Hobbs. Hobbs initially was charged with the slayings, but later exonerated through DNA evidence. Daily Herald File Photo, 2010
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