Aixa Hernandez was a toddler when her father went to prison, convicted of murder in a 1999 shooting, but as an adult, she sat in a courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Court Building and listened as a judge overturned her father’s conviction.
He will likely be home late Thursday, and they plan to go out to dinner.
“I didn’t think this was coming,” Hernandez said, wiping away tears after the hearing on Thursday. “I thought there was still six years.”
Her father, Richard Kwil, is among dozens to have convictions overturned in connection with disgraced former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, according to his attorneys. Guevara has been accused of fabricating evidence against people throughout his career with the Chicago Police Department.
Kwil was convicted in March of 2000 of the murder of Robert Cruz along with a co-defendant David Gecht, who has been exonerated. Kwil argued in a post-conviction relief petition that Guevara coerced a false confession — which encompassed nearly the whole case against him — with threats and false promises.
Cruz, a member of the Spanish Lords gang, was hit with a barrage of bullets as he left a bar on the city’s Northwest Side in January of 1999, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
According to Kwil’s petition, testimony from a woman who worked at the bar pointed to a different suspect.
Kwil appeared before Cook County Judge Diana Kenworthy, who reversed the convictions. Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Linda Walls did not object to the request and dropped all charges, though she said she was not able to reach family members of the victim.
“Sometimes the transition is a joyful one, but it can also be a difficult one,” Kenworthy told Kwil. “Lean on your attorneys and your family to help you.”
Kwil’s daughter hopes to soon introduce him her young twins.
“I’ve visited him, we write and talk on the phone, but it’s just not the same,” she said of building a relationship with Kwil behind bars.
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His attorneys say he is a gifted artist and plans to leave artwork behind at the state prison. He’s eager to get an official state ID.
“This is yet another tragedy in a long line of tragedies involving detective Reynaldo Guevara, the Area 5 detective division, the supervisors and sergeants who worked in that division and ultimately the Chicago Police Department,” said one of his attorneys, Anand Swaminathan.
In August after seven murder convictions related to Guevara were reversed in a single day, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, whose office dropped the charges, said prosecutors “can no longer stand by these convictions.”
The county has seen hundreds of murder convictions overturned in connection with a slew of former cops with the Chicago Police Department, related to allegations of torture and framing.
Attorneys handling the cases called on the state’s attorney’s office to come for a comprehensive meeting to address cases of additional defendants who have alleged wrongdoing against Guevara. They asked incoming Mayor Brandon Johnson to commit to reforming the police department and making whole the people who have been exonerated.
“What we need is true accountability for these officers. We need to change the culture of the Chicago Police Department to where they are motivated to weed out corrupt officers instead of motivated to cover up for them,” said Josh Tepfer, an attorney for Kwil.
mabuckley@chicagotribune.com
