CHICAGO (AP) — A guilty verdict has been returned against a man accused in the 2010 death an off-duty Chicago police officer.
It took a Cook County jury four hours of deliberations Tuesday to find 25-year-old Bernard Williams guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Officer David Blake. The jury also found Williams guilty of armed robbery.
Prosecutors said the then 18-year-old Williams lured Blake into an alley to kill the officer and raid a gun safe at his house.
No physical evidence linked Williams to the killing of Blake, nor was the murder weapon recovered. However, several of Williams’ friends testified he tried to recruit them to help in the murder and robbery, and then confessed after killing Blake.
Assistant Public Defender Dylan Barrett told jurors investigators targeted Williams “because of the pressure they felt to solve this crime.”
