Court agrees man should get new trial in Elgin slaying

The case of a Chicago man sentenced to 45 years in prison for a 1993 slaying in Elgin could wind up being heard by the Illinois Supreme Court.

An Illinois Appellate Court panel recently upheld a ruling granting Lavelle L. Davis a new trial because Davis' defense attorney did not secure experts to examine and question Davis' lip print left on a piece of duct tape.

The lip print was the key piece of physical evidence that led to Davis' 1997 conviction in the killing of 30-year-old Patrick Ferguson at what is now the Buena Vista Apartment complex in Elgin. Unlike fingerprints, lip prints no are longer considered valid by the courts, forensic experts and the FBI.

In March 2006, Kane County Judge Timothy Sheldon ordered a new trial and threw out the conviction against Davis. Now 34, Davis has been released from a Dixon prison and is free on bond.

David Latchana, a lawyer with the Chicago firm Winston and Strawn, handled Davis' appeal pro bono and plans to do the same for his new trial.

"We believe that Judge Sheldon was correct in the first instance, and we're pleased the appellate court agreed with him," Latchana said Wednesday.

Latchana also argued witnesses against Davis were inconsistent and the state had no physical evidence putting him at the scene.

Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti said his office would appeal to the Supreme Court.

Sheldon, in his 2006 ruling, noted defense attorney Lee Bastianoni was extremely ill at the time of the trial and had minimal resources to operate his law practice. Sheldon wrote that Bastianoni should have challenged the lip-print evidence, and the appellate panel unanimously agreed.

"Bastianoni made no effort to investigate the availability of an expert witness or prepare for cross-examination of the state's witness by consulting relevant literature," read part of the panel's ruling. "Instead, the unreliable scientific evidence prevailed over defendant's alibi defense, thereby prejudicing him."

During his trial, Davis maintained he was in Chicago at 5 p.m. Dec. 18, 1993, when Ferguson was hit by a shotgun blast in front of his son outside the apartments. Prosecutors argued Davis was the trigger man and used the roll of duct tape, which police found near the scene, to rehearse how he would gag Ferguson during a drug-related robbery.

No new trial date has been set.