![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-1.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBLOOMINGTON \u2014 Barton McNeil\u2019s quest for exoneration and a new trial for his 3-year-old daughter\u2019s 1998 death could be fast-tracked to an evidentiary hearing which would include testimony about his petition for post-conviction relief filed on his behalf earlier this year.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n McNeil, 62, is serving a 100-year prison sentence on murder charges in the June 15, 1998, suffocation death of his daughter, Christina McNeil, in Bloomington. McNeil was found guilty<\/strong><\/a> of the charges in a 1999 bench trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McLean County Assistant State\u2019s Attorney Mary Koll said in a brief status hearing Friday that prosecutors have recently learned of appellate court guidance that could allow the case to skip second stage review and move directly to an evidentiary hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judge William Yoder scheduled a hearing for Dec. 10 to check the status of the state\u2019s attorney\u2019s decision on whether to move forward to an evidentiary hearing or to ask for second stage review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McNeil\u2019s lawyers, Stephanie Kamel and John Hanlon, of the Illinois Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project, filed a 65-page petition for post-conviction relief in February based on new evidence that was not available at the time of his trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An evidentiary hearing would allow the court to hear new evidence and expert testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The petition notes that \u201cadvances in the science of child abuse pediatrics confirm that there is no evidence whatsoever that Christina was sexually abused,\u201d which prosecutors had alleged of McNeil during his trial, \u201cand, therefore, the evidence presented to the trier of fact regarding McNeil\u2019s alleged motive was entirely false.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Court documents also said: \u201cIf Christina\u2019s death was, in fact, a murder, the evidence indicates that McNeil\u2019s ex-girlfriend, Misook Nowlin \u2013 who was convicted of a separate, hauntingly similar murder 13 years after McNeil\u2019s conviction and whose hair and DNA have now been discovered at the scene of Christina\u2019s death \u2013 is her killer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nowlin, who now goes by the last name Wang, was convicted in 2012 of murdering her 70-year-old mother-in-law, Linda Tyda, by strangulation in September 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hours before Christina McNeil\u2019s death, McNeil and Nowlin got into a heated argument at a restaurant because McNeil was breaking the relationship off, he told The Pantagraph in a recent interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McNeil then picked up Christina later that night at his ex-wife\u2019s home, got her a McDonald\u2019s Happy Meal, and put her to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prosecutors at the time, however, concentrated efforts on McNeil and suggested that he was the only person around at the time of his daughter\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prosecutors also said at the time that a spider web was found the next day \u2013 about 12 hours later \u2013 on the outside of the window, indicating there was no intruder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n November 13, 2021 by Kade Heather CLICK HERE TO VIEW CHRIS ROSS INTERVIEW WITH THE…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[7,125,15,31,26,127,109,6,57,22,128,126],"class_list":["post-2540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-news-articles","tag-barton-mcneil","tag-bill-yoder","tag-chris-ross","tag-christina-mcneil","tag-john-hanlon","tag-judge-yoder","tag-mclean-county","tag-misook-nowlin","tag-misook-nowlin-wang","tag-misook-wang","tag-stephanie-kamel","tag-william-yoder"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","covernews-featured":"","covernews-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"chris.ross","author_link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?author=3"},"category_info":"Current News Articles<\/a>","tag_info":"Current News Articles","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2540"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2549,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions\/2549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-5.png\")
<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-4.png\")
<\/a> Watch now: Oxygen Network to air program on Bloomington murder case<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-2.png\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-3.png\")
<\/a>
DAVID PROEBER, THE PANTAGRAPH<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"