State high court to rehear 1996 case of murdered Aurora boy, 6.
The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of Mark A. Downs, a former Montgomery man whose conviction for the 1996 murder of a 6-year-old Aurora boy was overturned by an appellate court earlier this year.
Downs, 38, was sentenced to 70 years in prison for the death of Nicholas "Nico" Contreras, who was killed as he slept in a bedroom at his grandmother's house on the city's east side.
The murder went unsolved until 2006, when Downs and another man were charged with Nico's death as part of a multijurisdictional cold case investigation.
Prosecutors argued that Downs was ordered by a gang leader to kill the boy's uncle, who was in a rival gang and normally slept in the room.
He was convicted in 2009, but an appellate court vacated the guilty verdict.
During deliberations in Downs' trial in Kane County, jurors asked the court to define "reasonable doubt," and the judge gave the written response: "We cannot give you a definition it is your duty to define."
But the appellate court stated: "By asking if reasonable doubt was 80%, 70%, or 60%, the jury clearly showed that it was already contemplating a standard less than the reasonable-doubt standard required under the law. By instructing the jury that it was 'your duty to define,' the trial court gave the jury clear license to continue down its mistaken pathway of equating reasonable doubt to some percentage of confidence." A date for oral arguments before the Illinois Supreme Court has not yet been set. The court convenes Nov. 10 and three times in 2015: Jan. 12; March 9; and May 11.
Downs is still being held at the Stateville Correctional Center; no date has been set for him to appear in Kane County.
When Downs' verdict was overturned, the Kane County state's attorney's office said it was evaluating its options.
It had no comment Wednesday, but State's Attorney Joe McMahon said in June he would take the matter to the state's highest court.
"It's an emotional case for all of us," he said.