Attorneys and investigators left the Rolling Meadows courthouse Thursday knowing their client, 54-year-old Patrick Taylor, will soon be free.
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Taylor was wrongfully convicted and sent to prison when he was 38 for a murder he had nothing to do with, his attorneys said.
"Patrick was misidentified by a number of witnesses and lost the next 16 years of his life," said Elliot Slosar with the Exoneration Project.
It was a brutal crime. Two armed men invaded a Rolling Meadows apartment in 2006, beat several people inside and fatally shot 30-year-old Marquis Lovings when he failed to quickly open a bedroom safe.
Lovings was a popular suburban rap musician known as Keyz.
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Police eventually arrested Taylor, charging him with the murder. They originally asked for the death penalty, but he was sentenced to life in prison.
"If they had succeeded, if the state hadn't abolished the death penalty, he could have been executed, while the detective had boxes of evidence implicating other individuals," Slosar said.
Attorneys said there was no physical evidence linking Taylor to the crime. They said in addition to the faulty witness identification, attorneys later learned Rolling Meadows police apparently had several large containers of evidence pointing to other suspects.
The Rolling Meadows Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx issued a statement Wednesday.
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"Upon reviewing these previously unaccounted for documents and considering the deterioration of evidence, we determined that we would be unable to meet our burden of proof if the case were retried," the state read in part. "Meantime, Taylor's attorneys said they have gathered evidence pointing to other suspects that they believe police and prosecutors should have pursued years ago."
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"We've really undertaken the job the lead detective should have done originally," Slosar said.
Taylor is expected to be released Wednesday evening from the Cook County jail. He will soon be reunited with family, including his now 30-year-old daughter and granddaughter he has never met.