New trial ordered for St. Charles carnival worker in 2008 fatal stabbing
An appellate court has reversed a guilty verdict and ordered a new trial for a St. Charles carnival worker accused of killing another man in September 2008.
Arthur Manning, 66, was convicted in a second trial in 2013 and sentenced to 25 years in prison in the stabbing death of Naromi Mannery, 28, of St. Charles.
The appellate panel Friday ruled the judge should have polled the jury about whether a mitigating factor existed - such as self-defense - that could have triggered lesser charges of second-degree murder.
At the 2013 trial, prosecutors argued Mannery was beaten with a chair and stabbed in the back, chest and right arm after he drunkenly refused to leave a house on the 900 block of Main Street owned by Windy City Amusements. Mannery had been drinking beer that night with one of Manning's co-workers but was told he could not enter the home because he didn't work for the carnival.
Manning testified that he "lost it" after Mannery threw the first punch and called him a racial slur.
According to the appellate decision, the jury had a question about whether it needed a unanimous decision on whether a mitigating factor existed. After conferring with attorneys, the judge told the jury that its verdict needed to be unanimous.
"For all we know the jury deemed itself required to convict defendant of first-degree murder even though as many as 11 jurors voted to convict him of second-degree murder," the appellate panel wrote in its opinion. "Here, however, in light of the jury's question, this is not mere speculation. It is, rather, a distinct possibility, which undermines any reasonable confidence in the verdict."
Manning's first trial in 2009 resulted in a conviction but also was overturned by an appellate panel that said jurors were given improper instructions and not allowed to consider self-defense in deliberations.
Manning has been held in central Illinois at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton and will eventually be transferred to the Kane County jail while awaiting trial. His next court appearance was not immediately available.