Key evidence lost in Aurora murder case
Fingerprints and other key evidence used to link a North Aurora man to a roughly 12-year-old murder have been lost or destroyed, jeopardizing the chance to convict him in the gang-related slaying.
Michael L. Diaz could learn today if the first-degree murder charges he faces in a 1995 Aurora killing are dropped, or if Kane County prosecutors will go to trial without all their evidence.
Diaz, 32, was indicted last June in a highly touted sting dubbed "Operation First Degree Burn," which accused 30 people in 22 unsolved homicides, 13 of which were more than a decade old.
Police say Diaz and another man opened fire on Aug. 28, 1995, on three men standing outside an apartment on the 400 block of East Indian Trail, hitting all three and killing 17-year-old Larry Wesby.
The case is scheduled for trial Monday, but Aurora attorney Liam Dixon has asked to have the charges dropped, in part because of lost evidence he has been unable to review.
Lab reports of fingerprints found on a stolen vehicle police said the gunmen drove in the shooting mistakenly were destroyed, according to court papers seeking to dismiss the case.
And the identity of a confidential informant who could exonerate Diaz has not been provided to Dixon for review, according to the documents, which were argued Thursday before Judge Grant Wegner.
Wegner is set to rule on the motion this afternoon.
The fingerprints were lifted from a stolen vehicle and destroyed after the statute of limitations ran out in the auto theft case, even though the vehicle was linked to Wesby's murder, State's Attorney John Barsanti said.
Wegner could dismiss the offenses or allow them to be argued at a trial, but without the fingerprint and other evidence in Dixon's request.
Barsanti said he and other prosecutors plan to meet after Wegner issues his ruling and decide how to proceed with the case against Diaz.
Diaz, of the 200 block of Hickory Street, was indicted on five murder counts and booked in the Kane County jail on a $1 million bond.
Another man, Jimmy Torres, 33, of the 500 block of LaSalle Street in Aurora, also was accused of similar offenses in Wesby's death.