Wheaton murder suspect linked to prior killing

A man who claims he was “merely present” for a Wheaton drug dealer’s murder in 1999 will hear evidence linking him to an earlier killing, a judge ruled Thursday.

DuPage County Judge George Bakalis gave prosecutors the OK to present evidence at trial this summer tying 44-year-old Raymond Winters to the June 18, 1999, kidnapping and slaying of Darryl Green of Broadview.

Bakalis said the evidence could be used for the “limited purpose” of refuting Winters’ claim that he was present for the execution-style shooting of 32-year-old Aldis Tucker in Wheaton in July 1999 — but had no idea the victim would be killed.

Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Ruggiero said similarities in both killings — and evidence directly linking Winters to them — show he had participated in murders before and knew what was in store for Tucker the night he died.

Assistant Public Defender Jaime Escuder countered that implicating Winters in a prior murder would be “incredibly prejudicial” to a jury. He argued there were “innocent explanations” for the evidence that prosecutors say ties Winters to Green’s murder, and noted his client was never charged with that killing.

Ruggiero said Green was abducted from his Broadview beeper store and held for ransom, then taken to a wooded area and fatally shot. Like the Tucker murder, he said, Winters took part in the crime with the help of two other men, who used portable radios, duct tape and the same van used in the Tucker case.

Another associate of Winters’, convicted murderer Menard McAfee, later gave a recorded statement implicating Winters and the other two men in Green’s killing, Ruggiero said. Investigators also located Winters’ fingerprint in the van where they found Green’s blood and DNA, according to Ruggiero, and there’s additional evidence Winters made ransom calls from a phone purchased under a fake name.

“There’s numerous details, all corroborated,” Ruggiero said. “These murders happened a month apart.”

But whether McAfee will testify about what he allegedly told police of Green’s murder remains to be seen.

Jurors at Winters’ first trial in December couldn’t reach a verdict after McAfee took the stand for the state only to recant prior testimony implicating the defendant in Tucker’s killing.

Escuder said McAfee has a history of changing stories, and called his testimony “utterly worthless; he’s a convicted murderer who lies at every occasion.”

Winters, a reputed gang member and felon, is accused of shooting Tucker in the left eye after traveling from Chicago with two other men who had plans to rob the victim of money or drugs.

Aside from McAfee’s prior testimony, prosecutors have a palm print belonging to Winters that was lifted from a vehicle parked outside Tucker’s home, in an area where a witness said she saw the gunman lurking before Tucker was slain.

The prosecution was dealt a major setback last year when Bakalis ruled a confession Winters gave to police was improperly obtained and would be inadmissible at trial. A jailhouse informant, however, said he heard Winters confess on another occasion.

His trial is scheduled for June 28.