A Chicago man has cleared his name after a judge overturned his conviction on Tuesday for a 1990 murder he did not commit.
Tyrece Williams, 57, had spent two decades behind bars for the murder of a 15-year-old child. He is the 50th person to have his conviction overturned in a case investigated by former Chicago police detective Reynaldo Guevara, according to ABC 7 Eyewitness News.
A judge cited there is no physical evidence connecting Williams to the murder that he was convicted of 35 years ago, and overturned that wrongful murder conviction Tuesday.
Applause and happy tears filled the lobby of the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, where Williams and his family heard the news they waited decades for.
Williams said Guevara framed him for a murder in 1990.
Tyrece Williams leaving court today after hearing closing arguments in his case to overturn his homicide conviction tied to disgraced Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara @WBBMNewsradio pic.twitter.com/pkrnfcb1gi
— Mallory Vor Broker (@MVorBroker) January 24, 2025
The judge further indicated that the detective had “engaged in a pattern of abuse,” according to the news outlet.
Attorneys with the Exoneration Project slammed the Cook County State Attorney, accusing her of perpetuating police misconduct. Lyla Wasz-Piper told The Chicago Tribune that “the fact that the state’s attorney office under Eileen O’Neill Burke has decided to fight these cases … it’s a repeating of Chicago’s dark history.”
The judge further noted that a witness said Guevara had beaten and threatened him into identifying Williams as the shooter who murdered his friend.
In January, Wilfredo Torres took the stand and said he was with Cruz on the day he was attacked and saw a gunman wearing a sweatshirt with a tightly cinched hood shoot his friend.
Torres, who was 16 at the time, said in court that he repeatedly told police investigators that he couldn’t identify the gunman. But he was punched by Guevara and thrown into a wall at the police station so hard that he “saw stars,” he said. Guevara also threatened to put Torres in jail if he didn’t identify Williams.
Torres wrote in an affidavit that he testified against Williams “because I was young and scared” and feared detectives “would pin a case on me, like they were making me do for someone else.”
Howard noted in her ruling that rather than answering questions from Williams’ attorneys in a videotaped deposition, Guevara had repeatedly cited his right against self-incrimination, as he has done in other cases that were later overturned.
Chicago has paid $62.5 million to Guevara’s victims.
Those numbers will undoubtedly be added to. Even as dozens of Guevara's cases have already been overturned, many more are pending. The petitions of seven men, all of whom served full sentences for crimes they say Guevara framed them for, were heard in court Wednesday.
"It's been a long time coming. I did 20 years for something I didn't do," said Tyrece Williams.
Williams’ conviction was based primarily on eyewitness accounts with no physical evidence linking him to the crime. He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his sentence. The judge’s ruling has fully vindicated him.
At least 49 of Guevara’s other cases have been overturned due to his alleged misconduct. He has not been charged with a crime and retired in 2005.
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