1999 August 12 News Article – McNeil gets life in prison

WEBSITE AUTHOR NOTES: The Judge presiding in this case, which is known as “the sole fact finder” in a Bench Trial, found the insinuation that Barton had molested his 3-year old daughter, despite no charges being filed as there was zero physical evidence to support this accusation, was so heinous, that the maximum penalty he could assess against Barton was. The State initially was considering early on in the case to obtain the death penalty. Fortunately for Barton, any case in the State of Illinois at that time that would involve the Death Penalty, required a higher standard of assigned defense attorney take place. The relatively inexpensive defense attorney McLean County wished to retain would not meet this higher standard. So the lesser charge was initiated that would allow not for the death penalty, but instead a “death-by-prison” sentence. Consider how Barton was sentenced to a lifetime sentence without the possibility of parole in what was two first degree murder charges. The first count was for the murder itself. The second count of first degree murder was for the very fact that the victim was a minor. In 2002, a few years later, due to the sentencing guidelines within Illinois being deemed unconstitutional, Barton was re-sentenced by the same judge. However this time the sentence could not be a “lifetime imprisonment”, but instead could range from 20 to 100 year maximum sentence. As it was the same judge who gave Barton the maximum sentence in 1999, he gave Barton then the maximum sentence in 2002 of 100 years. Despite Barton never having committed any kind of major crime nor being actually charged for sexually abusing his daughter Christina. Now enter the year 2011 and Misook, 13 years later, premeditatively scheming to murder her mother-in-law. It was a complex murder involving much planning. First Misook needed her husband to be out of town. Next she needed to arrange a Chinese speaking hostess at a local Bloomington area Chinese restaurant to call the victim, Linda Wenlan Tyda, stating that Linda needed to pick up a Chinese student at the Cubs Parking lot at 5:30 a.m. on Labor Day, September 5th, 2011. She then bludgeoned Linda Tyda after she induced Linda to drive to Misook’s place of business, Kim’s Sewing, and then manually strangled her. She then needed to dispose of Linda Wenlan Tyda’s vehicle by driving it to a residential area near Midway Airport and taking a bus, with her then 6-year old son Donovan with her for the entire trip. Donovan of course knew this to be his grandmother’s vehicle. Following Misook’s return to Bloomington with Donovan, she then needed to arrange the disposal of her mother-in-law’s body. She purchased a 40 gallon plastic bin from Lowe’s and a shovel, undressed Linda, put her body in the bin, and as her neck would not fit broke it. So essentially desecrated Linda’s body. She then called a local church going friend to help her unwittingly hoist the 40 gallon bin containing Linda into the back of Misook’s SUV. Her friend found the 40 gallon tub quite heavy despite Linda weighing only about 100 pounds and quipped to Misook “what do you have in here…. a body!”. Yes we kid you not. This can all be found in the Discovery interview documents. Misook, a god fearing Korean church attending woman, had another parishioner help get the body into her vehicle. So that she and Donovan could go on another road trip to Chicago together. Sadly Donovan asked Misook on their way to Chicago “what is grandma doing in the box?”. To which Misook told him “she is hiding”. Yup, all this too can be found in the Discovery interview records that included an interview of young 6-year old Donovan himself. But first Misook has a score to settle. She is headed to Chicago first as she wants to find her husband Don’s girlfriend Jenny Chie who was Linda Wenlan Tyda’s assistant. Both Don and Jenny were supposedly having an extramarital affair. But alas Misook could not locate Jenny that night and reportedly threw out the hammer she had brought in which to bludgeon her to death with. Not is approaching midnight. Where to bury Linda’s naked body with Donovan present? In a secluded forest preserve located off an exit. So in the dead of the night, Misook dug a shallow brave, taped Linda Tyda into two black plastic trash bags and buried her. When she was approached in the following days to learn if she knew where Tyda was she stated no that she had no idea. Adding that she hoped Linda would be found and that she missed her terribly. Fortunately private citizens came forward having solved the case entirely on their own and handed it to the Bloomington Police on a silver platter. As it was the civilians who found out who the Chinese hostess was that had been enticed by Misook to make the fateful phone call to Linda in exchange for $20. The Chinese hostess said she would have done it for free but that after calling Linda and speaking Chinese, Misook insisted she take the $20 bill out of her outstretched hand. So Misook in the end was charged and convicted of FOUR counts of First Degree Murder. What were they? They were (1) causing the murder; (2) premeditatively doing so; (3) murdering an elderly person and (4) disposing of the body so that police could not find it. Misook’s sentence for the above….. 55 years in prison. Figure that one out folks! All we can say is that the victim’s husband, Larry Tyda, was very upset with such a light sentence that could conceivably see Misook being let out of prison close to when she turns 90 years of age.

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